Fwd: Re: monarch freeze

[Paul Cherubini]

Richard Worth wrote today:

> Hey group,
> Just thought I'd pass this along.  A note from Andy Brower to a colleague.
> Looks like the whole pesticide thing is now but an urban legend.

and on March 12 Rudy Benavides wrote 

> For anyone interested in a chronology of the happenings in Michoacan,
> Monarch Watch - at http://www.MonarchWatch.org - is maintaining reports on
> their website under *Overwintering Monarchs Killed*.  I do hope they were
> wrong on the alleged pesticide poaching.

The problem with the Monarch Watch website is that it only reports bad news
about the monarchs in Mexico. For example, although a Reuters article reported
on March 12 that the Mexican environmental watchdog Profepa found no
trace of pesticide residues in a scientific analysis of 300 butterfly corpses
from the Cerro San Andres sanctuary, the Monarch Watch has not posted
this good news. http://www.monarchwatch.org/about/new/news.htm  So
the public hears only one side of the story and is likely to jump to the
conclusion that the rumors of intentional butterfly poisoning by loggers
are true. The "public" includes potential granting agencies such as the David and
Lucille Packard Foundation.

Likewise, consider how Dr. Chip Taylor (director of the Monarch Watch)
sent out the following "Shocking news" post on March 10 about monarchs
killed by pesticides in Mexico to leps-list, entomol-list, dplex-list and two
reporters, (about 3000 people total) but has not followed up with a retraction
post in all this time. 

Paul Cherubini, Placerville, Calif.

Sat, 10 Mar 2001 20:04:16 -0600
From: Chip Taylor <chip at ku.edu>
Subject: Mexico --- Shocking news
CC: leps-l at lists.yale.edu,
     Entomology Discussion List <ENTOMO-L at LISTSERV.UOGUELPH.CA>,
     Lori Benson <benson at sciencetimes.tv>, halpern at aya.yale.edu,
     JohnsonK at Coudert.com

The following [from Lincoln Brower] is more news from Mexico concerning
the possibility that large numbers of monarchs were killed by loggers.

>From Lincoln Brower

Dear Colleagues,

"Independent lines of evidence are suggesting that more than one of the
overwintering colonies of the monarch butterfly in Mexico have been sprayed
by insecticides."

 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl