Stop Dow's chemical assault on monarchs
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council)
Dow Chemical has just unveiled its newest potent herbicide -- Enlist Duo -- which will continue the toxic assault on native milkweed plants that North America's monarch butterflies need to survive.
NRDC is ramping up an all-out campaign of courtroom action and consumer protest to block Dow's newest weed killer before it destroys our already ravaged iconic butterfly populations. All we need is your help.
I'll be honest: The extraordinary monarch migration is teetering on the brink of collapse.
Last winter, just 56.6 million monarchs made the journey to Mexico -- a mere fraction of the one billion recorded less than 20 years ago.
What's to blame? In large part, the spraying of potent herbicides produced by Dow, Monsanto and other industrial agriculture giants, which is obliterating the native milkweed plants that monarchs desperately need to survive.
Milkweed is the sole food source for monarch caterpillars. No milkweed means no monarchs.
Already, 150 million acres of milkweed-filled monarch habitat has been destroyed in part because of weed killers like Enlist Duo. That's an area more than one and a half times the size of California.
Monarchs are also jeopardized by climate change and deforestation, along with the veritable swarm of other milkweed-destroying products already sold in stores across the country.
Enlist Duo would add insult to injury, dramatically escalating that assault on Mother Nature: it is a one-two punch that combines milkweed-destroying glyphosate with 2,4-D, a compound that also poses potentially grave health risks to people.
NRDC is already fighting in court to block Dow's chemical onslaught. But legal action alone may not be enough to spur Dow to action.
That's why it's absolutely crucial that Dow Chemical's CEO Andrew N. Liveris hear from hundreds of thousands of consumers -- caring people like you -- who will not stand for the destruction of one of the most beautiful and inspiring migrations on Earth.
Here's the good news: Any monarch expert will tell you that monarchs can recover, but only with our help. Please add your name to mine today.
Let's go,
Rhea Suh
President, NRDC
