G'day Gregg,
Of course your points are absolutely valid. Unfortunately up here (you
thought that Oz was on the bottom, didn't you) our environment was pristine
until relatively recently. Then the Poms thought that fox hunting would be
nice together with bunnies to remind them of home. Add the cane toad that
we Aussies imported from South America to eradicate the cane beetle; it now
could be the most robust pest we have. And yes, the bug people just two
weeks ago discovered the first evidence of fire ants!
For all that, what with modern transport systems we'll all end up with our
fair share of these problems and I don't think that there is a hope in hell
of us being able to prevent them. So your latter option is probably
correct.
But out of the gloom there is one shining light. On the Northern Beaches of
Sydney at the moment we have the most glorious crop of golden orb spiders.
Big and fat and just begging for some macro shots to be taken! I hope to
sharpen my most elementary technique in just that direction.
John.
-----Original Message-----
From: Gregg Iverson [SMTP:giverson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2001 1:52 PM
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [OM] Hello again, and a question
I've read that cats are one of several introduced species that have
overpopulated Oz. Seems a shame to lose all the native critters because of
them. We face the same problem in the US, often in waterways that have
become populated with nonnative species of fish and crustaceans, but also
in plant species (duckweed and kudzu come to mind), and oh yes, we can't
forget the insect world! (fire ants, Indonesian termites, and African bees
for example).
I was not trying to minimize the problem but point out that it is quite
common when humans enter the picture. I was recently reading (National
Geography?) about the problems with water availability around the world,
and was shocked to find how many industrialized nations face a serious
shortage. The article went on to mention that of all agricultural uses,
cows and their feed were the biggest gluttons. Who would have thought?
Now for the question. Should we try to maintain the status quo as it used
to be or just assume that the process of survival of the fittest is at
work? :-)
Gregg
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