10.4 Environmental Sustainability
275
Management of invasive species is of course inherently unique to each species
and the specific environment that it invades. As such, each case must be evaluated
and tackled independently for the most appropriate and effective strategy. An
example of where there has been a big push in implementing invasive species
management in recent years is in the shipping industry. The industry is worth well
over USD $200 billion and its value is increasing substantially every year (Shin and
Thai 2015). With ships transporting our goods and products all over the world, there
is an inherent risk of accidental transportation of wildlife in ship hulls. As a means
of balancing themselves in the ocean, ships take on water at different stages of their
journey to help counteract the weight from the cargo it is transporting. This “ballast
water” is released later on in the journey at different times to help maintain balance.
However, water taken up by a ship in the Atlantic Ocean will have very different
marine wildlife than water in the Indian Ocean, and thus presents a serious threat of
new species introductions worldwide.
In order to counteract this, management strategies have involved the implementation of a number of strict regulations and incorporation of new technology
to inhibit the potential establishment of new species. Shipping companies are
strictly regulated on where and when they are allowed to dump their excess ballast
water. This has been in conjunction with a huge push in the development of
new technologies that “treat” the ballast water before it is expelled. These water
treatments essentially use environmentally safe chemicals to kill any micro-wildlife
in the water, so that they cannot be transmitted to a new location. This combination
of strategies illustrates how a combination of techniques can be utilized in order to
develop an environmentally sustainable solution to conserve a natural biodiversity
equilibrium without damaging the economic potential of a human enterprise.
While the establishment of invasive species has become a severe problem in
damaging our planet’s biodiversity, it is not the only way that we are damaging
our world’s beautiful wildlife. We are upsetting the Earth’s natural order in our
quest for natural resource acquisition. We are causing significant environmental
damage through deforestation, pollution, and hunting, all of which directly affect
local wildlife. Increasing human populations and economic growth in many tropical
countries has resulted in a substantial increase in human activity, such as agricultural
expansion and commercial timber extraction. This results in significant changes to
tropical forest ecosystems, through large-scale habitat losses. It is estimated that
an astonishing 150 acres of forest are lost every minute around the world. A large
proportion of this is in the Amazon rainforest, where it is thought that 20% of its
total coverage has been lost (Ellison et al. 2012).
Additionally, the substantial pollution that our society emits to the environment
is also having profound effects on our planet’s biodiversity. By looking at any
given ecosystem, there could be a host of different contaminations. Streams can
contain a spectrum of toxic chemicals leaked into water supplies from our industrial
processes. Rivers can become overloaded with agricultural nutrients, trash can blow
away from our landfills, and the skies above our cities are rife with smog from
our gas emissions. These types of pollution can muddy our beautiful landscapes,
275
Management of invasive species is of course inherently unique to each species
and the specific environment that it invades. As such, each case must be evaluated
and tackled independently for the most appropriate and effective strategy. An
example of where there has been a big push in implementing invasive species
management in recent years is in the shipping industry. The industry is worth well
over USD $200 billion and its value is increasing substantially every year (Shin and
Thai 2015). With ships transporting our goods and products all over the world, there
is an inherent risk of accidental transportation of wildlife in ship hulls. As a means
of balancing themselves in the ocean, ships take on water at different stages of their
journey to help counteract the weight from the cargo it is transporting. This “ballast
water” is released later on in the journey at different times to help maintain balance.
However, water taken up by a ship in the Atlantic Ocean will have very different
marine wildlife than water in the Indian Ocean, and thus presents a serious threat of
new species introductions worldwide.
In order to counteract this, management strategies have involved the implementation of a number of strict regulations and incorporation of new technology
to inhibit the potential establishment of new species. Shipping companies are
strictly regulated on where and when they are allowed to dump their excess ballast
water. This has been in conjunction with a huge push in the development of
new technologies that “treat” the ballast water before it is expelled. These water
treatments essentially use environmentally safe chemicals to kill any micro-wildlife
in the water, so that they cannot be transmitted to a new location. This combination
of strategies illustrates how a combination of techniques can be utilized in order to
develop an environmentally sustainable solution to conserve a natural biodiversity
equilibrium without damaging the economic potential of a human enterprise.
While the establishment of invasive species has become a severe problem in
damaging our planet’s biodiversity, it is not the only way that we are damaging
our world’s beautiful wildlife. We are upsetting the Earth’s natural order in our
quest for natural resource acquisition. We are causing significant environmental
damage through deforestation, pollution, and hunting, all of which directly affect
local wildlife. Increasing human populations and economic growth in many tropical
countries has resulted in a substantial increase in human activity, such as agricultural
expansion and commercial timber extraction. This results in significant changes to
tropical forest ecosystems, through large-scale habitat losses. It is estimated that
an astonishing 150 acres of forest are lost every minute around the world. A large
proportion of this is in the Amazon rainforest, where it is thought that 20% of its
total coverage has been lost (Ellison et al. 2012).
Additionally, the substantial pollution that our society emits to the environment
is also having profound effects on our planet’s biodiversity. By looking at any
given ecosystem, there could be a host of different contaminations. Streams can
contain a spectrum of toxic chemicals leaked into water supplies from our industrial
processes. Rivers can become overloaded with agricultural nutrients, trash can blow
away from our landfills, and the skies above our cities are rife with smog from
our gas emissions. These types of pollution can muddy our beautiful landscapes,