Destruction Through Invasion

This article discusses invasive species  that have been plaguing Europe while also touching briefly on a couple other places with similar species problems.  According to the article around 10,000 alien (aka invasive) species have invaded Europe with about 1500 of those species being  considered harmful.  Examples of these harmful invasive species example include water hyacinth from the Amazon and parakeets from Africa.  One of the main problems is that they are costing Europe a great deal of money (an estimated 16 billion a year) to get rid of.  Part of the increase has to do with increased trade and also the destruction of native species habitats, which allows more durable invasive species to out-compete the native species.  Many species were also introduced on purpose for a certain reason, but then escape and breed uncontrollably.  The EEA has been trying to get focus pointed toward preventing the harmful species (as opposed to the helpful species like the potatoes) from entering.  On top of that, climate change is likely to help increase the harm caused by invasive species.   This can be seen by through the tiger mosquito (originally from Asia) which has been linked to a virus outbreak in Italy that as well as the ragweed plant (Originally from North America) whose pollen causes allergies.  Both species would thrive even more should climate change continue.

 It is interesting to note that it is actually environmental destruction that is helping to accelerate the problem, as seen by the pollution and destruction of natural habitats making it easier for invasive species to invade. Furthermore it was humans who accelerated the problem as it was us for the most part that spread these species that normally would have never been able to travel so far. This was in my opinion a good article because it pointed out many examples of harmful invasive species (as well as some helpful) and also the causes of it and why they are so harmful.  I would have liked to hear more about how they country has gone about eradicating the problem as it mentioned they were successful at getting rid of some and if their eradication efforts were causing any further harm on the enviornment.  I would also have like to hear more about why it is many of these invasive are difficult and costly to get rid of as the article does not mention this.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/21/us-invaders-idUSBRE91K03Y20130221

I apoligize for forgetting to put the intial time of post
it was some time after 10 Thurs night