Hot Spots in Ecology

• Invasive Species:

Burmese pythons are capable of reaching 23 ft.
in length and weighing up to 200lbs. Some of
them get to be as thick as telephone poles.

One of the hazards of living in a global community is the inadvertent exchange of organisms. Invasive species are not a new problem. They've been an issue since ships started sailing to new waters and bringing back foreign mussels. The fact remains, however, that allowing an organism to enter an environment where it doesn't have any natural predators upends the native ecosystem. This has been a problem for a long time in the Everglades with the Burmese python, but it looks like thing might be getting worse. No one knows how to stop them, and no one knows how much they'll affect the ecosystem. See: Giant hybrid pythons in Florida

• Conservation:

Photo by Michael LaRosa on Unsplash

Ecosystems all over the world have been disrupted by human development. Some of them irreparably so, but others can be salvaged. The mission of many ecologists is to preserve as much as possible and to restore what they can. "Rewilding" natural predators is a technique being used with marginal success in Yellowstone National park, where the reintroduction of the gray wolf has resulted in an ecological rebirth for the area. Adding large predators back into their native ecosystems has its problems- it causes tension with their human neighbors, and in most cases, the animals are unable to re-adapt to the wild. See: 'Rewilding' Missing Carnivores

• Climate Change:

Possibly the hottest topic of them all, climate change is hotly debated in this country, the split between believers and unbelievers often mimicking party lines. If our actions are effecting the environment, then we need to act fast and act now. If not, there's nothing to worry about. But there is something to worry about. The vast majority of ecologists and climate scientists agree that uncharacteristic changes are happening at alarming and unnatural rates, and we are the driving cause of that. If concern for the climate wasn't politicized, it would be so much easier to try to save a dying world. See: Trump's EPA chief on the Climate Report

This last one is the most concerning for me. All of the data that I have come across is clear, concise, and speaks for itself. Our world is suffering, and it is in our power to do something about it. The biggest problem is the way the data points are communicated. Their either put across as too threatening by those who agree, or too dismissively by those who dissent. There has to be a more moderate, less rhetorically and politically charged way to address this issue. I've got to believe that there is.

Python Photo Credit