Butterfly scandal?

[Paul Cherubini]

Stanley A. Gorodenski wrote:

> Only one message today!  Maybe what we need is a little controversy
> (although I really don't expect any takers).

Or maybe a butterfly scandal.

Remember the charge made by environmentalists a few weeks
ago:  "Loggers Said to Wipe Out 22 Million Butterflies "
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010306/sc/environment_butterflies_dc_1.html

A recent scientific analysis of the butterflies suggests this
story was a hoax:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010312/sc/environment_butterflies_dc_2.html

Monday March 12 9:47 PM ET
Mexico Says Monarch Butterflies Killed by the Cold

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Mexican government's environmental
watchdog said on Monday millions of Monarch butterflies, which
migrate south eachwinter from Canada, had died from the cold weather
rather than deliberate poisoning by loggers, as some environmentalists
had alleged.

Last week, Homero Aridjis, head of the environmental lobby Group of
100, told Reuters that loggers were believed to have sprayed pesticides
on the orange and black butterflies, killing 22 million of them, to try
and regain some 216 square miles of forest protected by the
government.

Aridjis said the butterflies had been found with a strange luster on
their wings and that there was a smell of pesticide and gasoline in
two sanctuaries in the protected reserve.

But the Mexican environmental watchdog Profepa said in a statement
that a scientific analysis of 300 butterfly corpses from the Cerro
San Andres sanctuary in central Michoacan state showed no trace of
toxic substances from pesticides.

It concluded that the butterflies had died from the cold.

Paul Cherubini, Placerville, Calif.

 
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