It is hard to see mankind as anything but an invasive species. It’s a term that makes most of us, who are familiar with it, recoil. Rats invading islands and destroying native bird species. Wetlands destroyed by non-native rushes. A stand of Eucalyptus in California, with nothing growing. Brown tree snakes in Guam’s now sound-less forests. The huge colony of Argentinean ants that now stretches from San Francisco to San Diego.
By definition, an invasive species adversely affects the habitats they invade environmentally. Check — happening in every corner of the planet.
An invasive species has the ability to grow and reproduce more rapidly than other species. Check, man’s population growth is unstoppable. Wild animal populations are plummeting in direct relation to the surge of humans.
Often, an invasive species will alter their environment through facilitation, using chemicals or exploiting abiotic factors, which will make an ecosystem less hospitable to the creatures with which it competes. It seems possible that man has done this through the development of thousands of abiotic chemicals which are irrevocably polluting the environment.
It’s hard to be optimistic about the continued survival of nature at the level of biodiversity now existing on the planet. Mankind does not seem to be taking the necessary steps — addressing climate change and overpopulation most importantly — to safeguard the significant number of species in danger of extinction.
It will be important to remember all of the dead and bear witness to the richness that was lost.
Japanese sea lions, a close relative of the California sea lion, went virtually extinct in the 1940s after mass predations by humans killed off most of them. The last Zalophus japonicus was a juvenile captured in 1974 off the coast of northern Hokkaido.
Qi Qi died in captvity in 2002, the last known Baiji to exist. He was the final survivor of a line that stretched back more than 20 million years. The Baiji, or Chinese river porpoise, is the first cetacean to have gone extinct as a direct cause of the actions of mankind.
I was just watching the World Cup and caught this new tv commercial from Travelers Insurance. This is one of the cutest ads I’ve seen in a long time, but the tag line is beyond ironic: “When you’re not worried about potential dangers, the world can be a far less threatening place.” There’s no insurance for African wildlife, where threats from poaching, climate change and habitat encroachment are escalating.
As species who share this planet and are endowed with their own rights, these animals should profit from the use of their images when used commercially. Here’s to rhino and raptor residuals.
On a side note, there’s also a Step’n'Fetchit aspect to the video. Hey humans, look how happy we all are!
Martha, thought to be the world’s last passenger pigeon died on September 1, 1914 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The species once numbered in the billions but after intense hunting, the passenger pigeon suffered a catastrophic decline and disappeared from the planet.
Groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity have pushed for the effects of greenhouse gas emissions to be considered under the Endangered Species Act. But, in this decision, they see the Obama administration reaffirming the stance of the Bush administration. What a shame.
