Sustainability efforts migrate into November

This monarch butterfly sips nectar through its proboscis from a milkweed plant (Asclepias curassavica) on Johnson Space Center's mall. Monarch butterflies migrate through Texas in the fall on the way to Mexico. Unlike birds and bats, these winged, seasonal migrants go through several generations during each annual migration. Many monarch butterflies overwinter in northern Mexico and, as spring approaches, begin to lay eggs. The offspring of the overwintering butterflies begin migrating north in the spring. A second, third and sometimes fourth generation hatch and mature before the final migratory generation returns south to the same forests in Mexico, where their great-grandparents or great-great-grandparents spent the previous winter.

This unique migratory pattern relies on thousands of square miles of suitable habitat across Mexico, the United States and Canada. Land conversion, pesticides and climate change threaten the loss of the milkweed plants that the butterfly populations depend on—and these insects are now being considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Locally, Johnson is making efforts to reduce the impact of resource use, having completed the 2016 Energy Competition in October. View photos of the winners and their stats in November’s Sustainability Opportunities. Other global climate-related news, such as ratification of the Paris Agreements by the majority of the 193 parties represented, is also featured.


Image credit: NASA/Lauren Harnett