As a Floridian, this is one of those things that’s been bugging me about our state and its politics. See, for whatever reason the powers that be have decided that “non-native” invasive species of plants and animals are “bad”. While on the surface you may agree; being that certain species can threaten the entire ecosystem and balance therein. On the one hand, yes, plants and animal species not from this biosphere can cause damages on a massive scale. The lack of predators and limiting factors allow alien species to flourish unchecked and sometimes they can just overrun everything, and if the environment doesn’t prevent growth, they can destroy that too. It’s amazing how destructive such innocuous creatures from outside an ecosystem can ruin everything.
So by now you might not be seeing a down side to the extermination and control of such things. But here’s the problem, they might not be all bad! See, invasions and rebalancing happens all the time in nature! It’s not just a part of nature, it IS nature. While equilibrium is the natural state of things, discord and chaos are also a part of this process. The constant destruction and rebirth are just cycles of the greater picture, we just have to step back and look at it objectively.
I guess the issue with us is that of reluctance to change and convenience. We don’t like change and especially don’t like things that inconvenience us. But nature is an ever present force and to quote Jurassic Park, “life WILL find a way”. It has a way of spreading and beating upon the walls of our civilization with the strength of a thousand hurricanes. While it can not be contained or controlled, it can be managed… and can be destroyed. It is a paradox; both powerful and fragile at the same time. And unfortunately, the more we humans interfere, the worse things usually end up for everything that’s not us.
Some more specific problems with Florida would be with stuff like the Brazilian Pepper, that destroys some of the natural foliage (specifically the plants that are structural to the coastline… ie… very very bad) or the anaconda and those cute little iguana lizard things as well as a number of birds (like parrots) and even monkeys. I think what we need to do here is try and draw a line in the sand with what we are willing to exterminate. Some stuff moves in and fits right in, like the monkeys and parrots, while others destroy public property (like the lizards), some just like to fight with the gators for predatory dominance (snakes), and some are just plane destructive like that pepper tree. So the question is, at what point are we willing to mass murder a species? Is it because it needs control because it causes hazards to the environment and its inhabitants? Or is it because they are pests to us humans? We’ve already seen how we humans can over hunt/exterminate a species into absolute extinction just because, well, we wanted to. There are many many creatures on the “never to return” list because of us. And we need to really take a good look at what we are doing because at the end of the day… WE are the invasive species.
That’s right, if you ever go to Florida or have ever lived there… just look around (or remember it)… Everything you see there was, at one point, the ocean floor. The native species of plants an animals were oceanic. Seaweed was our grass and fish our birds. Fastforward many years and through a series of mishaps, accidental wanderings, mass invasions, destruction, and rebirth, we find this state as a lush ecosystem of flora and fauna living in balance. Then we show up and everything goes to hell. But at least after a few decades of destruction we’ve gotten the hint and given the EPA a lot of mess to clean up. We’re getting there though. So before we start adding our little buddies to the “kill on sight” list, maybe we should take a big ol look at that big objective picture. Because the invasion, destruction, and rebirth cycles have been going on for millions of years now… and who do we think we are to stand in the way of that? Just a little food for thought. (queue up the “the more you know” jingle)
I don’t want to sound like a jerkface here, but, I am always perplexed by the common belief that most people seem to have about this. That how the earth was one hundred, one thousand, or even one hundred thousand or more years ago is “how it should be” and should stay that way. The climate has changed sooo much, and tons more species have gone extinct then are even around these days. Most of the things people think have a right to belong here really haven’t been around all that long in the grand scheme of things, be it bugs, plants, or people!
Now don’t get me wrong, making an effort to keep pandas or whales or redwood trees around is a pretty cool thing, I support it, and it’s probably in our best interest. As is keeping the climate in a range that supports life as we know it, specifically because that’s what we need to survive. We rely on a lot of the other living things on this planet to keep us going, so we need to take care of them even if it is for selfish reasons. This is because at the end of the day (or millennium or whatever!) the #1 species we should be concerned about keeping around in my opinion is us!
the climate is crazy dynamic and will change many many times. sure, our lifespans are a little short to notice things so when changes happen swiftly, we freak out a little, but ice ages come and go, continents shift, jungles be come deserts (desserts?), and life goes on. trying to force an environment we consider “proper” isn’t going to help anything. nature is going to do what nature is going to do. just look at Africa… it used to be all lush and green… now there’s a big sandy splotch. imagine how freaked those folks were that were living there when it happened! so long story short… don’t stand in the way of nature, but always have a backup plan for when it decides to try and kill you.
All you can do is prevention. Multiple cases of invasive plants and animals are because PEOPLE brought them with them from wherever they came.
For example, blackberries are quite a problem. They’re in this awkward place between “people think blackberries are tasty so we’re glad they’re here” and “I’m a blackberry and I want to mess up the environment.”
For commercial purposes they can be restricted to farms, but out in the wild they still cause lasting problems. They prefer river and streams on the whole because they need a lot of water, so if you have the choice between a barren stream side (prone to erosion) and blackberries, it’s better than nothing. The roots are shallow so they provide limited protection in that regard.
They do provide some shelter and food for animals, but blackberries when given the chance sprawl. They will occupy a large area and are rather taxing on the soil in how much they consume which makes it harder for other trees and shrubs getting roots down; and in the early stages keep up with the blackberry.
The end result of all that is limited animal shelter, weak erosion protection, and a lack of diversity in the ecosystem (less plants which then support less kinds of animals), which makes it a more fragile ecosystem.
All that because some people from the Himalayas traveling abroad wanted to make money selling the seeds of a plant where they’re from.
Don’t even get me started on idiots smuggling animals around.
man… I’ve never been good at getting blackberries to grow… maybe I just have a black thumb of death.
there ya go! problem solved! just send me into the wilds and have me try and water all the invasive plants! they’ll die instantly…
Ok this is off topic but ok………….
One day on the interwebs i was browsing a threat about about warhammer 40k on the starcraft forums
And what i found out was……….
THE STSRCRAFT AND THE WARCRAFT UNIVERSES ARE BASED ON THE WARHAMMER 40k universe and the warhammer fantsy universe!
I mean The Warhammer warcraft it not hard to belive once you see it!
Why? I got that too
Now the warhammer universes statred in 1982 then one day blizzard wanted to make some warhammer games, games workshop did not give them the deal.
So blizzard decided to create their own universe and that what we play today.
Now im not saying one is better than the other all are great……….
But this is kinda a “what if” moment
hmm, didn’t know that! sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. though if you look at my “tolkien did it” comic, basically everything rips off everything else.
Nature is only useful if it produces something. Develop/sell it all and preserve whatever species that development would otherwise make extinct in zoos or genetically. If in the future a situation arises where those species could be used productively, then we still have them available as tools while at the same time we are able to use all the land that those species currently occupy.
lol man, you’re insane! I like that! >D
I kinda had this little fantasy of a dream home… every plant in the front and back yard would be edible! so like the trees would be fruit trees, plants would be veggies or herbs, and the grass would be a field of chives! mowing time would smell delicious!!
I say don’t interfere. Work on creating biospheres for humans to live in and not disturb anything else, and let the rest of the world just play out how it wants…unless people can learn to, you know, not kill everything.
humans are parasites in every sense of the word. we strip the resources and move on. at some point, we’re really going to need to crack down and get into being more reciprocating with our environment. not even because of pollution, but when we start topping the charts in population, well… there’s only so much resources on the planet for us to use…
Yeah, you are right! Death to invading species!! Give Florida back to the spaniards, they got there first!!!
This whole dinamism of nature brings a question to my head, for all of you: Would you rather stay as we are, following the circle of birth, breeding and dying, or being inmortal, yet infertile, beings that don’t need to feed, and coinhabit the world with the same permanent residents forever?
personally? I’d like to live forever and learn and study… but as a species we kind of need the death cycle to really sure up our evolution. problem with “forever” is that even the universe has an expiration date… not sure what we’re going to do when we get to the end, but I would love to see us make a darn good try at it! sure it’s a long way off, but right now, our top priority as a species should be to get off this planet and colonize space in as many places as we can. maybe then we’ll have a chance to live forever in the human sense. buuuuut we probably won’t make it past another year so oh well…
Personally I’d rather go the route that I’ve been told is called the doomsday plan.. XD… Immortal in the sense of memories and time, and yet changing.. For anything that kills you makes you stronger when you’re reborn. The problem of course with this would be balancing out cell regeneration and energy usage with consumption of materials.
It’s kinda similar to louisiana, if nature takes its course we get washed away and lose our home, we fight natural change just living here. However, the difference is most invasive species were brought to the new environment by humans, making the change slightly unnatural and completely our fault.
Terraforming is where it’s at baby! .. .XD. Anyways, I do believe that we also become the ‘natural predators’ of species that cause us problems as a way in our nature to preserve our ideal environment. The problem arises when we don’t match the puzzle pieces together and wipe out one species directly related to another species that is preferable.. Another solution is always to introduce a predator that’s favorite food is our pest.. . But that sometimes makes even more problems! .. As for the pepper trees. . Well, Export! XD