[leps-talk] It's fall and time for a new round of Monarch Ext inction press releases.

Mark Walker MWalker at gensym.com
Wed Nov 12 04:41:56 EST 2003


Paul wrote about the latest Monarch press release:

> In past years, usually in the fall or winter, Dr's Lincoln Brower, Karen
> Oberhauser and/or Chip Taylor have made dire predictions, about the
> potential impacts of logging in Mexico, Bt corn, tourist trampling,
> butterfly
> releases, mosquito spraying etc, on migratory monarchs, but the migrants
> continue be as abundant as ever.  This fall, Dr. Oberhauser has been
> talking to the press about an imminent new extinction threat:
> 
> USA TODAY:
> http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2003-11-11-monarch-climate_x.htm

I saw the same article in my North County Times (Oceanside, CA), so it's
certainly making the rounds.  It's amazing how predictably press-worthy
these articles are.  Without getting into another they vs. he discussion, I
wonder if I'm the only one besides Paul that is bothered by the science
being applied here.  I'd feel a lot better if occasionally the reports
indicated a little bit of objectivity - but nope, they're always validating
what appears to be a presupposition that the Monarch is the next endangered
species.

Oh well.  This latest theory isn't demonstrable for another 50 years, so
we'll just have to wait and see (I'll be 95, so perhaps I'll have already
collected my last Monarch by then).

Mark Walker.
(for the record, I have exactly six specimens of Danaus plexippus in my
collection - three from CA, one from Quebec, one from Puerto Rico, and one
from Spain).

 
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