[Leps-l] Deniers

[spruance spruance]

Hi all,  First some local weather data:

At lower elevation (4,500') on the east side of the continental divide in
Alamogordo NM, our temps fluctuate daily, as is normal for the desert, and
I see butterflies every day in my butterfly garden.  And the normal
"winter"geometrids gather nightly at my porch light in the crepuscular
hours before the temps drop into the 20s. We have snow on the mountain
behind my house, but the snow pack is well below "normal" (whatever that is
now-a-days), and the moisture content of the snow is very low.  The
contribution of the snow to Spring run-offs will be negligable, compared to
"normal."  The leps survive as they have for millenia, but the species
composition and relative abundance are undoubtedly changing.  We
desperately need longitudinal quantitative data on Lepidoptera  (temp &
precipitation changes are well documented with real data for New Mexico)
else the climate change deniers will continue to cherry pick our weakness
to support other scientific data that human caused change is real.

Out comes the soap-box:

Sadly nearly all Lepidopterists, collectors, observers, and photographers,
cherry pick when they are in the field by pursuing the rare species, or the
species needed to fill holes in a collection, or to get the best photo of
the best specimen, or to report species sure to get the attention of other
Lepidopterists.  Species lists that appear in these discussion groups do
not report absolute numbers, nor do they document detailed habitat
associations of the reported species.

I am not negative about this, I'm encouraged that there are so many
interested people willing to share.  I encourage us to do better.  I hope
someday our observations will be comparable to the long term data being
collected by the Long-Term Monitoring of Butterflies project of The Ohio
Lepidopterists.
http://www.ohiolepidopterists.org/bflymonitoring/downloads/BMP%20Manual%202008%20-%20large%20pages.pdf

Please keep the observations coming.  Please add some scientific quality to
the observations.  Please, as I do, take photographs of each observation
site, at different times of the year, over many years.  With the digital
age the photos are easy to incorporate into word processing documents for
easy annotation and long term storage.

The  weather underground site  http://www.wunderground.com/  is an
excellent place to obtain actual data for the exact time and place you took
the photo and made the observations.

Time to put the soapbox away.

Best wishes to all from sunny, unseasonably warm, and drought-stricken
southern New Mexico.

Eric

Eric Metzler
Alamogordo NM




On Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 9:35 PM, Stan Gorodenski <stanlep at commspeed.net>wrote:

> Patrick,
> Regarding anthropomorphic climate change (ACC) deniers. I had some
> personal experience where someone approached me, in email, about a paper
> they wanted me to read. It was presented in such a way as to give the
> impression that it was just an interesting paper they wanted me to read
> and to get my reaction. However, I knew this person was a ACC denier and
> his ulterior motive was to give me a paper that to him showed how right
> he was and how wrong I was. I read it and discovered some serious flaws
> in the analysis and data. I presented this to him - and then heard
> nothing more about it. He still is a ACC denier, though. It appears that
> when something detracts from the beliefs of some individuals, it is
> ignored. If it supports their beliefs, it is remembered. This goes along
> with your idea that deniers do not question their own belief system and
> what motivates them.
> Stan
>
> On 2/16/2013 9:10 PM, Stan Gorodenski wrote:
> >
> > On 2/16/2013 8:16 PM, Foley, Patrick wrote:
> >
> >> Count me (and the great majority of atmospheric scientists) among the
> climate change alarmists.
> >>
> >> This is however not my area of expertise. Paul should go argue this out
> with NOAA scientists. Or any atmospheric scientists.
> >>
> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeling_Curve
> >>
> >> Skepticism in science is a very useful tool. But one should be
> skeptical of ones own views also. Nietzsche said once " The courage of
> one's convictions -- a common error; real courage is questioning one's own
> convictions." Scientists (including climate change "alarmists") do this all
> the time. That is the essence of science. As far as I can see, most climate
> change deniers do not question their own belief systems or what motivates
> them.
> >>
> >>
> > Good point. This never occurred to me. I wonder if climate change
> > deniers even know themselves what motivates them. I can see all kinds of
> > influences, including the political and religious group one belongs to.
> > I also wonder if it is the culture of anti-science that is fostering
> > this. The deniers are intelligent. Because of the anti-science culture
> > they make their own interpretations of data in lieu of those of
> scientists.
> > Stan
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Leps-l mailing list
> > Leps-l at mailman.yale.edu
> > http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/leps-l
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leps-l mailing list
> Leps-l at mailman.yale.edu
> http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/leps-l
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/leps-l/attachments/20130217/5996d5e3/attachment-0001.html