Chico Sanchez Photography Blog: The Monarch Butterfly

Sharing a short audio-slide show about the monarch butterfly, whose ability to migrate every year from Canada to México is at serious risk. Experts say the corridor they use to fly north and south is becoming obsolete, for several reason, and could put an end to the monarch migration sooner than we think :

Genetically modified crops and agro-chemicals in the US are killing the milkweed they eat
Deforestation in the US
Urban sprawl in the US
Climate change
Mexico´s illegal logging in the forests where they hibernate during winter months.

It´s uncertain what will happen in the coming years when the monarch butterflies try to return via the US to Canada, where extremely cold temperatures are caused mainly by deforestation.

Twenty years ago this beautiful insect was the symbol adopted by the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), a commercial agreement between Canada, Mexico and United States. These three countries signed environmental accords to protect migratory animals like the monarch butterfly, but today two decades later, the monarch butterfly is on the brink of disappearing.

This audio-slide show contains pictures taken at two Monarch butterflies sanctuaries: El Rosario in Angangueo, Michoacán in 2007, and Cerro Pelón sanctuary in Capulín, Mexico state in 2010-12 and 2014. Every time I go to a sancturary, there are noticeably fewer monarchs to photograph.

The accompanying audio is the amplified sound made by the monarchs as they fly, a kind of buzzing sound, without effects or distortion. This is how it sounds.

Bees and bats are suffering a huge decline as well. Nobody seams to react, and our society keeps using the same agriculture and industrial procedures that are destroying life on our earth. I hope this audio-slide show encourages people to look for information on how some big agro-chemical companies are causing severe damage to our planet earth, in the name of profit.

To see the audio-slide show click here: www.chicosanchez.com/monarch

Information consulted for this audio-slide show:
worldwildlife.org/species/monarch-butterfly
www.jornada.unam.mx/2014/01/30/ciencias/a02n1cie
www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/2013/11/30/se-reduce-la-poblacion-de-mariposas-monarcas-que-llega-a-michoacan-7375.html
www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/2014/01/29/numero-de-mariposas-monarca-que-hibernan-en-mexico-cayo-43-7-este-ano-wwf-5020.html
bigstory.ap.org/article/monarch-butterflies-drop-migration-may-disappear-0
www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/29/monarch-butterfly-decline-mexico
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140129-monarch-butterflies-mexico-animals-science-environment-migration-nation/
www.naftanow.org

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The Monarch Butterfly