Writers ask for monarch butterflies’ protection
Writers ask for monarch butterflies’ protection
By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, February 14, 12:40 AM
MEXICO CITY — Dozens of scientists, artists, writers and environmentalists on Friday urged the leaders of Mexico, Canada and the United States to devote part of their meeting next week to discussing ways to protect the Monarch butterfly.
A letter to the three leaders signed by more than 150 intellectuals, including Nobel literature laureate Orham Pamuk, U.S. environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr. and Canadian author Margaret Atwood , notes the Monarch population has dropped to the lowest level since record-keeping began in 1993.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Obama are meeting in Toluca, near Mexico City, on Wednesday to discuss such matters as economic competitiveness, trade and investment, entrepreneurship and security.
The Monarch’s spectacular annual migration to spend the winter in Mexico is little understood. Experts blame the drop in numbers on several things: extreme weather trends, a dramatic reduction of the butterflies’ habitat in Mexico from illegal logging, and genetically modified crops in the U.S. displacing milkweed, which the species feeds on.
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