Humans as an Invasive Speices

This was an assignment for my TECH WRITING: SCIENCE, PUBLIC WRITING, AND NEW MEDIA course informing the public on a controversial subject… I know that this is very radical and Im not saying we should going around killing people as a management plan. I just want people to see that humans can be/are an invasive species. Lots of people will say we can’t be invasive because we made the term but I think thats the point… just because we are “more intelligent” than other species doesn’t mean that we can just take over the world with out looking at the consequences and impacts it has on other species.

A Little Information

I am aware that some people will get offended when I say that humans are an invasive species, but my goal is not to offend anyone. I would just like for people to see that humans are being very destructive to the environment. An article from Surprising Science is one that I though was interesting as it applies humans to invasive species terms. The other links are also found in the Surprising Science article, but I wanted to place them here too because I think they can help some people understand what invasive species are and what they do.

Laws and Regulations of invasive species

All about Invasive Species: Invasive Species Specialist Group

Easter Island Invasive Plant Species

Before we start to look at us Humans as an invasive species, I’d like to give an example of how invasive plants and animals can be destructive and harmful to the environment they reside in.

In this example, Dr. Jonathan Arzt discovered the source of a critical ailment to Easter Islands’ horses and livestock. The source was an invasive plant species that humans had planted on the island to control erosion after roads were built. The following is a documentary of Dr. Arzt discovery and his efforts to help the animals and people of Easter Island.

(The video is found in three parts. Part two and three can be found in the side bar on the right side of the page. Or you can click

TERRA 111: Caballo Loco on Easter Island PART ONE

TERRA 112: Caballo Loco on Easter Island PART TWO

TERRA 113: Caballo Loco on Easter Island PART THREE

We Are Earthlings

“Who are you really, Earthlings, to believe that you are the ones adding relations by the sheer symbolic order of your mind, by the projective power of your brain, by the sheer intensity of your social schemes, to a world entirely devoid of meaning, of relations, of connections?! Where have you lived until now? Oh I know, you have lived into this strange modernist utterly archaic globe; and suddenly under crisis you realize that all along you have been inhabiting the Earth. “ (Bruno Latour, 2007)

 

In the beginning sentences this article is unlike any other scientific article that I have ever read right off the bat.  He begins by stating that the entire mood of the article is the fault of James Lovelock who wrote the book The Revenge of Gaia, Gaia being a mythical name of the support system of our planet. He goes on to explain a little about Lovelock’s book and how he thinks that humans, not people, are at war with Gaia. Lovelock compares it to the “War on Terror” which he says can not be won. He claims that this war against Gaia will end in one of two ways. First we humans could win the war against Gaia but end up destroying it along with ourselves. Or second Gaia will win and “she” will eventually manage to rid herself of our existence. Even though international Committees on Global Warming Latour continuously reinforce the book pointed out a few flaws. One of these flaws is the population of humans in 2050. Lovelock claims that there will be a population of 500 million humans. He also says that humans will be responsible for 30 or 40% of the species extinction and it will not affect us or Earth. I think Latour makes has a great question, “ How can we remain unmoved by the idea that we are now not as dangerous to our life support system as the impact of a major meteorite?”

Latour concludes with saying that columnists are complaining about how the utopian ideal” is being abandoned yet they don’t do much about it but complain. He also says that the terms “revolutionary” and “earth-shattering proportions are no longer just metaphors, they have become literal. He also says that we humans have shaken the Earth out of balance for good and if Lovelock’s predictions and claims are true then we only have a small amount of time to try and win the war against Gaia or try and save her, about forty three years to be exact.