Mexican Monarchs

Jeroen Mentens jeroen.mentens at student.kuleuven.ac.be
Thu Mar 8 10:27:10 EST 2001


Neil Jones wrote:
> 
> In article <3AA70359.3E1C at saber.net> monarch at saber.net "Paul Cherubini" writes:
> 
> He is at it again isn't he!. As usual it is what he doesn't tell us.
> See more below.
> 
> > In the Reuters article provided by Bob Parcelles it was stated:
> >
> > > In November last year, the government of former
> > > President Ernesto Zedillo extended the land devoted to
> > > five sanctuaries. The move was in response to a
> > > study {led by Lincoln Brower]
> > > showing that farming and illegal logging had
> > > destroyed 44 percent of the original forest since
> > > 1971.
> >
> > How many of you have a picture in your mind of
> > a tragic loss of nearly half the butterfly forest in Mexico based
> > on this sensational news story? How many of you are sick
> > to your stomach over this?
> >
> > But if you compared ground photos of the sanctuaries
> > in 1990 http://www.saber.net/~monarch/1990.jpeg
> > vs 2001 http://www.saber.net/~monarch/2001.jpeg
> > you would see virtually no change in the forest. Maybe this
> > is why such stories never carry real photos to substantiate
> > the dramatic claims.
> 
> The ground photos are undoubtedly carefully positioned to give an impression
> consistent with the political aims of the photographer.
> 
> >
> > And If you compared satellite photos of the sanctuary region between
> > 2000 http://www.saber.net/~monarch/Angangeo2000.jpeg and
> > 1973 http://www.saber.net/~monarch/Anganueo1973.jpeg
> > you also would note very few changes.
> >
> > Conclusion: More fire in the theatre!
> >
> 
> Well in order to form MY conclusions I look at the EVIDENCE.
> My conclusion is that it is another typical misrepresentation from
> a political activist who is a member of the "wise use" anti-conservation
> movement.
> 
> The satelite photographs above were obtained from a USGS website.
> BUT not all the photographs are being given to us.
> The ones Mr Cherubini has shown don't show the forest thinning
> because they are at low resolution. The gaps in the trees don't show
> unless you go in closer.
> The web site has these but he has chosen not to tell us about them
> as we would not form the conclusion that he wants.
> 
> I have taken the HIGH RESOLUTION photographs and placed them on the
> web at http://www.wildlifewebsite.com/monarch/
> I have presented them in a different and slightly easier format.
> They clearly show the loss of forest over time.
> The original site is at
> http://edc.usgs.gov/earthshots/slow/Anagueuo/Anagueuo/
> 
> Of course his next step will be to show us another set of biased
>  photographs of monarchs in trees that he CLAIMS are in thinned areas
> or something of that kind. Then there will be pictures of roads
> or such like that butterflies just happen to sit on. He has been doing
> this for years helping people construct on wildlife sites. The science
> says he is wrong but a good presentation with lots of nice pretty pictures
> will convince some people who do not understand the real complexities.
> 
> For those new people who want to know more about this man.
> There is some text from a previous posting at
> http://www.wildlifewebsite.com/monarch/cherubini.html
> Bad behaviour, allegations of apparent lawbreaking etc. and some bits
> about the movement to which he belongs and his politics.
> 
> And before anybody flames me about it FOR POLITICAL REASONS as it always
> is. This guy is not behaving honestly. This is obvious when you take the
> trouble to look at the facts. A lot of people will be deceived about the
> nature of science if they listen to him. This is wrong.
> It is also bad for science.

Flaming YOU?
I've looked at the pictures you mentioned and as I'm doing my MSc-thesis
about forests (using Landsat-images) I can confirm to you there are
enormous deforestations!
BTW the site which also includes some more info about the deforestation
and the images has moved to 
http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/earthshots/slow/Angangueo/Angangueo
I don't know who this Paul Cherubini is. 
Does he work for a deforestationcompany or what?

 
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