NewsWeek: There was a time, not long ago, when monarch butterflies were widespread enough that it would’ve been crazy to think about listing them as endangered. In 1996, for example, 1 billion of these regal orange-and-black insects were estimated to have arrived at their wintering grounds in Mexico. Last year that number reached a record low of 33 million.
Due to this precipitous decline, several conservation groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in August to list the monarch butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. And on Monday the federal agency announced that it would indeed look into whether the monarch should be listed, saying in a release that the petition “presents substantial information indicating that listing may be warranted.” Read more.
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
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