Deforestation · Eco-Chick

Browsing all posts tagged with deforestation

Backyard Miracles

Monarch butterfly

The butterflies are migrating! I have noticed the delicate orange wonders flit joyfully through my neighborhood from one purple butterfly bush to the next for about 2 weeks now. They float along the sidewalks, the Potomac, and through our backyards. Today I counted about 13 of them float by my office window. The butterfly migration marks the end of summer, but no one is quite sure just how they do it.

I remember the first time I noticed the migration. I was standing in the parking lot of an apartment complex I was living in and it seemed that several butterflies were traveling in the same general direction, one after another, like on a pathway. I immediately started to research what I witnessed to find an explanation.

It appears that monarch butterflies travel from Canada all the way to Mexico every year in order to winter in a warmer climate. The longest recorded distance for one tagged flutterby was about 2, 879 miles (4, 634 kilometers). Once they reach Mexico, they gather on cypress trees, one layer upon the next, creating an incubated space for the butterflies at the center. This is how some of them make it through the winter in order to reproduce the following year. A single butterfly of the Methuselah generation, a special generation of the Monarch that can live 7 to 8 months rather than the normal 5 to 6 weeks, will make the journey south for the winter to hibernate. When they make the return journey north in the spring, this generation will make it only so far before they lay eggs and die; the subsequent generations will continue north along the path to Canada, but it will take several generations of shorter lived butterflies to make it there. Pretty fascinating!

Pesticides, deforestation, and general human expansion threaten populations. This miraculous event is one that we are just barely aware of as we rush through our daily routines, but we can be more involved. You can volunteer/support groups that monitor and tag the butterflies; plant appropriate plants, such as milkweed, for them to eat, lay eggs on, or take refuge in; get your kids involved by creating an educational project around conservation and understanding what we know about these creatures; educate yourself; refrain from spraying your gardens and lawns with pesticides. Just as I was writing this piece, I counted 6 more butterflies pass by my window!

Bush, conservation, deforestation, eating, garden, gardens, insects, kids, lawns, media, Milk, News, Plants, produce, spa, spring, summer, travel, trees

Greenpeace Announces McVictory

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by Kimberly Jordan Allen · 08/02/06

This week, Greenpeace has praised McDonald’s for leading an international industry-based campaign to stop deforestation of the Amazon. Pressure from Greenpeace and other grassroots organizations has been applied to McDonald’s for purchasing soya grown in deforested regions in order to be used as chicken feed.

Greenpeace had launched a campaign called Eating Up the Amazon in April of this year, explaining how McD’s and other food companies were to blame for the destruction and social injustices being perpetrated in the Amazon. This action comes in the form of a two-year moratorium on purchasing soya from deforested areas, enacted by soya traders responding to the pressure.

Karen Van Bergen, President of McDonald’s Europe said, “We are determined to do the right thing together with our suppliers and the Brazilian government, to protect the Amazon from further destruction.”

Amazon, Brazil, deforestation, eating, Europe, Food, fur, News, soy

Victoria's Dirty Secret

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by Kimberly Jordan Allen · 04/24/06

I was reading Business Week online and noticed this interesting piece on Victoria’s Secret. Limited Brands, the parent company of VS, has been publically indicted for its blatant use of virgin fiber in their catalog production that reaches quantities as large as 395 million produced anually. This paper ends up in the garbage, or if we’re lucky, in the recycling bin.

The destruction of the forests of the Southern U.S., where nearly 6 million acres are logged annually, and the continuing decimation of the endangered Canadian Boreal Forest has generated concern internationally. The organization largely to blame for bringing this flagrant deforestation to the fore is Forest Ethics, a group who seek to hold corporations accountable for the destruction of, yep, you guessed it, our forests! 225 protests took place accross the U.S. on April 11th of this year, putting pressure on the company to terminate its contract with International Paper, who have been criticized for destroying endangered woodlands. Since the campaign began, VS has begun using 80% recycled content for their clearance catalogs but their current contract is still largely using pulp derived from endangered species.