Butterfly effect

EDUARDO ZARZA GARCíA, a 55-year-old Nahuatl indian, remembers that when he was a boy, the arrival of millions of butterflies to the hills above his home in central Mexico was associated with the Day of the Dead on November 2nd. His grandparents would say that the palomas (doves), as they were called, were the spirits of his ancestors, paying an annual visit.

Even after Canadian zoologists discovered in 1975 that the butterflies were in fact the familiar monarchs that laid eggs and hatched during the summer in the United States and Canada, the science was no less alluring. In late autumn, the almost weightless butterflies flutter about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) south to reach a few clumps of fir trees in Mexico where they hibernate and mate. Unlike migrating birds, none has ever made the journey before, making it one of North America’s most extraordinary natural phenomena.

So it should be an inspiring symbol for North America, whose three leaders met on February 19th in Toluca, within 35 miles (56km) of the Piedra Herrada butterfly sanctuary, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). But...Continue reading



from Americas view http://ift.tt/MAMpgb