Too many scientists and policymakers
focus so much on global warming that they’ve given short shrift to active environmental
threats destroying our forests and waterways at unprecedented rates.
One could argue that invasive
species, not warming temperatures, are the greatest threat posed to natural
balance in North America. These animals and plants don’t belong in our country
but, through global trade, they have ended up taking root, destroying our
resources in perpetuity.
Among them are emerald ash borers, beetles
that came from Asia in the 1990s and have killed more than a couple billion ash
trees. More than 7 billion of these trees are threatened by the unstoppable
beasts, including a billion here in the Empire State. If you want to see what
they’ve done already, head out into the lush summer landscape and see the
hundreds of tall, dead, leafless trees they’ve left in their path of
destruction.
Also noticeable here in this region
is the mass die-off of beech trees. The smooth-barked trees well known for
their carving graffiti will be totally wiped out by 2025. The loss of those
nut-bearing trees will affect every mammal in the forest.
Then, there’s the woody adelgid
which is wiping out hemlocks across the northeast. Once those coniferous trees
die off so will impressive populations of migrant songbirds like warblers that
frequent them.
The pestilence doesn’t end in our
woodlands. Our waterways are under attack, too. Consider the Asian carp, a
large bottom-feeding fish making its way across the Great Lakes where it will
be certain to disrupt the system’s $7 billion fishery.
These invaders represent only the
tip of the iceberg. Many more are here. More are coming.
It wasn’t always like this.
Prior to 2000 our greatest invasive
nightmares were limited to the introduction of pests and disease that wiped out
elms and chestnuts, trees that once grew large and dominated our forests. Those
depressing die-offs slowly took place over decades.
But now, such attacks seem to be
effecting so many species and are happening too fast and in new ways.
You can blame our shrinking world
and the global economy.
With the vast amount of exports we
bring in annually it’s no wonder that we’ve opened our borders to such
invasions. More than 11 million shipping containers come to America every year,
filled with unchecked product of questionable integrity from questionable sources.
If the products themselves are suspect, imagine the skids upon which they are
shipped (what insects do they carry?) or the craft that carry them (what do
their ballasts hold?).
That begs the question: Why has the
EPA done so little to regulate trade and incoming material? Is it misplaced
priorities?
Many have argued that the EPA’s
modus operandi is unconstitutional. The federal government is not authorized to
legislate environmental issues within the states. Truthfully, there is no
agency that better understands the uniqueness of New York and its various
habitats and the creatures that inhabit them than the state’s environmental
arm, the Department of Conservation. It is that agency and New York’s state and
local lawmakers (along with citizen participation) that should decide what are
permissible levels of development and non-standard inputs into the environment
as well as what may be taken from it.
But, constitutionally, the EPA does have the power to oversee aspects
of international trade and protect our environment – and economy – from outside
damage. The preamble to the Constitution describes the limited purposes of our
federal government and among them is the provision of common defense and
regulation of trade. Under that, the EPA would actually have constitutional
justification to focus on those external threats, specifically invasive species
at the point of entry.
If the EPA were serious about living
out its mission – and the Constitutional responsibilities of the federal
government – it would set strict rules and conduct numerous inspections to
protect our nation from these outside factors that will compromise our environment
and health more than any domestic factors will. Rather than harassing a
locally-owned farms and gas stations, the EPA should instead hold accountable
the massive the foreign firms and governments that don’t care the least about
America’s wild lands and natural resources, as well the equally-guilty American
corporations that don’t have or follow ethical and environmental policies and
standards.
It seems like Big Money is winning
out here, especially with help from abroad. Corrupt trading partners — like
China — would prefer to see our resources expunged because it means more
exporting business for them. Our losses are their gains. Invasive species
represent a sort of economic warfare. And, it’s war in which the EPA has seemed
to throw up the white flag.
From the 15 July 2019 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia
Daily News
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