Chapter 10 - Michael Torres

Kolbert introduces Chapter 10 with a discovery that bats in Albany, New York have been affected by a fungus that is traveling far to other bat populations.  This is Kolbert’s segway to the discussion of invasive species and how humans have made it exponentially easier for such species to travel around and disrupt ecosystems around the world.  This definitely touches on the theme of humans altering natural systems because humans, as Kolbert puts it, have made the Earth’s geographical barriers useless. On page 198, Kolbert writes, “During any given twenty-four-hour period, it is estimated that ten thousand different species are being moved around the world just in ballast water.  Thus a single supertanker(or, for that matter, a jet passenger) can undo millions of years of geographic separation.” This quote is significant because it makes the point that humans are altering natural systems in a way that has never been seen before. This connects to chapter 1 where Kolbert discusses how the frogs shouldn’t be able to travel continent to continent, but humans made them invasive species in these other continents.