Mr. Callahan
24/08/18
In 2007, a team of biologists were exploring a cave in Albany when they noticed thousands of dead bats covered in a white powder; the bats were killed by the fungus Geomyces destructans. Darwin’s ideas of natural selection can help to grasp what is going on; Darwin argued that natural barriers isolated species and they couldn’t overcome these barriers. However, his idea isn’t accurate because humans have dispersed animals throughout the world through global trade & travel. In fact, when a species is introduced to a new environment, they either die because they cannot adapt to the new ecosystem or thrive because there have only a few rivals. This, however, poses a threat to the biodiversity of the environment as the invasive species begin to dominate; such as when a Japanese fungus was introduced to the US in the 1900s and wiped out the chestnut population. Back in Albany, Kolbert visits the caves with A Hicks and it becomes clear that humans are at fault for the fate of the bats. Through trade and travel, humans have introduced new species that ruined the equilibrium of the environment & threatened other species.
This chapter connects to the theme that humans have altered natural systems through trade and travel. As stated in the text, “By transporting Asian species to North America, and North American species to Australia, and Australian species to Africa, and European species to Antarctica, we are, in effect, resembling the world into one enormous supercontinent-what biologists refers to as the New Pangea.” Since humans have accomplished circumnavigation, humans are dispersing species to new environments and regions; as a result, there are no more barriers and animals have travel easily, similar to the time of Pangea. While reading this, I was a bit shocked; I didn’t know how big of an impact globalization had. Globalization has removed the natural barriers that protected species from contamination & interference.
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