Butterfly Questions

[jhimmel at connix.com]

>Some people maintain that photography is more environmentally friendly
>than collecting, but I wonder. There is an environmental cost to both
>manufacturing and processing film, and that may not be insignificant
>compared to the modest effects of removing a few individuals from
>abundant populations. 

Oh, come on now!  I was going on sit at the side while everyone was encouraging 
the poster to collect until that statement.  If you want to take that route, how 
about the chemicals used to kill the butterflies?  Good healthy stuff?  

Rationalize all you want.  The bottom line for the INDIVIDUAL butterfly that is 
being observed - not the population as a whole, because it probably won't be 
affected by responsible collecting - is that it benefits less from being killed 
than photographed. Some people, myself included, look at the individual 
butterfly (or moth) as an individual butterfly and think of it in those terms 
instead of it being just one of thousands.  Some of us enjoy the pursuit of this 
pasttime this way.  There is nothing wrong with that.  If we choose to 
photograph it instead of killing it, it flies off unharmed.  That makes some us 
us happy.

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John Himmelman
Killingworth, CT USA
jhimmel at connix.com
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