Reply #3: Takes time. [View All]

[Ready4Change]

You are right, given time the ecology will work out a balance. However, that amount of time is greater than most humans patience allows. We want things now. We can't even wait for "in our lifetime." The Great Lakes will take thousands of years to work out a balance with the current invaders, and that assumes we don't introduce yet more foreign species.

I think the longer term view is that humans will act as transport vectors for all of the worlds most virile species, with the result that the global life forms will become much less diverse. And our observations demonstrate that when diversity is reduced, the dominant life forms get struck by plagues and die off, then regrow to die off yet again, in a reducing cycle that eventually, over many thousands of years, results in a new equilibrium.

Re: Gypsy Moths: They are still a real problem. Some states have tried to halt their advance, with limited success. Basically they can hold infestations off for an extra year or two, but then are reduced to damage control, as the moths always get past defenses.