BE CAREFUL WHAT PETITIONS YOU SIGN…
I am all for signing a petition instigating pressure by many of us coming together and petitioning for change.
However, how many of you who have signed petitions, without having checked into the validity of what you are asked to put your name to?
I was asked to sign a petition against a company that marketed pesticide claiming that it was killing the monarch butterflies – the heading read:
Migrating monarch butterflies are in “grave danger,”
So I looked on the Internet to find out more about this – here was the outcome:
Omar Vidal, director general of WWF-Mexico, noted by email: “The monarch butterfly as a species is not endangered. What is endangered is its migratory phenomenon from Canada to Mexico and back.”
Another threat to butterflies is climate extremes, including the droughts, heat waves, and storms that have hit North America in recent years. For instance, monarch numbers were very low in 2005 and 2006 most likely because of a severe drought in the U.S. The number of migrating monarchs is plummeting for a few reasons: a widespread loss of a plant called milkweed, which their young rely on for food; extreme climate fluctuations in North America, including freezing temperatures and heavy rain; and deforestation.
It’s not easy, but there are ways to halt the decline by recruiting the help of all three North American countries, Oberhauser noted.
For instance, incorporating milkweed into large-scale plantings wherever possible—including marginal lands like roadsides—is one strategy.
North American gardeners can also contribute by planting milkweed and making their land more butterfly friendly.
Whilst I am not in favour of using pesticides, plastics and other commodities that are showing negative results to humans and other species, I am also not into scaremongering and bending the truth for political reasons.
Many sites had grabbed hold of the news blaming pesticides for their (the Monarch Butterfly) demise without checking further. So to all intense and purposes, all the people that follow their blog and believe it without checking the validity themselves, are also spreading the one-eyed view, which view seems to have come originally from an ‘organic produce’ website.
Otherwise, it is like me as a therapist saying what your problem is based on what your friend said to me about you, without checking things out with you first.
Would it not have been better to post how we could help the Monarch Butterfly as mentioned above?
I think that it is important that we don’t vote with our heart, without using our head first to check things out – don’t you? Who posted the petition… where are they from… for what reason… is it entirely true… is someone posting for change for their own political reasons… etc.
People can also do damage to wild populations by trying to raise monarch eggs bought from commercial suppliers. There’s very little oversight, which means that even if you’re trying to help monarchs, you might be inadvertently spreading disease. Click on the link above and you have options on learning more.
