Butterfly scandal?

Paul Cherubini monarch at saber.net
Wed Mar 21 00:55:42 EST 2001


Jeroen Mentens wrote:

> I wouldn't call it a scandal. everybody can make mistakes

How often? Almost every winter the same enviromentalists go to the Associated
Press, Reuters and the New York Times with monarch disaster stories which  
later turn out to be "mistaken".

Example: 

Date: 01/03/96 Time: 08:46 Snow and Cold Kill Monarch Butterflies  
in Mexico 

MEXICO CITY (AP) Snowfall and a cold snap have killed millions of
monarch butterflies at their wintering grounds in mountainous western 
Mexico. A preliminary survey of the butterfly sanctuaries by researchers
indicates at least 30 percent of the 50 million to 60 million monarchs that
migrated there from the United States and Canada perished, a leading 
environmentalist said Tuesday. ``This is just devastating,'' said Homero 
Aridjis, leader of the Group of 100 environmental lobby. `

And in the New York Times on Friday, Jan. 26, 1996
HOMERO ARIDJIS and LINCOLN P. BROWER wrote:

"As many as 30 million monarch butterflies died after a snowstorm
hit their sanctuaries in central Mexico on Dec. 30, [1995]"

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED:  ``Some of them have died but 
it's only  8 percent maximum,'' said Homero Gomez, an agricultural engineer 
interviewed by the Mexican news network Televisa. 
And according to another report
http://www.monarchwatch.org/dplex/1996/Apr9612.html
"Eneida Montesinos Patino and Eduardo Rendon Salinas, our Mexican 
student researchers, have hard numbers: Only 6 to 7% of the butterflies 
were killed by the late December, 1995 snowstorm." 

Paul Cherubini, Placerville, Calif.

 
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