Just my humble opinion, but we might learn to love and accept the
critters that can adapt to the changes humans are making to our planet,
whether rats or starlings. These are the most likely candidates for
giving rise to new species after the next major extinction event. Until
humans themselves stop reproducing (record number of babies born in the
US last year!), it seems ludicrous to focus on trying to eliminate
species that benefit from human disturbance. Evolution is change.
Trying to maintain a certain composition of species just because they
were the ones present when we evolved sufficiently to finally name and
classify them is a losing battle. Is it worth expending any energy or
time to eradicating non-native species when we are continuing to destroy
habitat? The big challenge may be to preserve basic ecosystem functions
in the future, rather than individual species. Perhaps I hang out with
too many geologists though. I mourn the loss of species as much as
anyone, but I realize a lot of this is subjective attachment on my part.
And hey, we are close to being able to clone just about anything, so
extinction isn't forever anymore! Maybe we can terraform Mars and seed
it with birds of paradise and Columbian mammoths.
Angela in Olympia
Angela at stillwatersci dot com