Invasion Theory
I’m glad for the weekend because my back has decided to remind me that I’m an old man. Although, since I’m old and retired, I don’t really need the excuse of the weekend to sit around and do nothing. But old habits die hard and on most weekdays, I feel like I should be doing something and a bad back is a real hindrance. Luckily, I’m pretty much caught up on the yard word, so what needs doing is pretty easy.
This leaves me plenty of time for mental gymnastics and my current obsession is the subject of invasive species. To further my education I’ve ordered the book that apparently started the conversation, The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants by Charles S. Elton published in 1958. What got me interested was how closely some of the language we use to describe invasive plants and animals shows up in our debates about immigration, especially the use of the word invasion.
I’d like to read how he framed the debate because the book came out just after World War II when the Germans tried to root out an entire people, and the US was starting to wrestle with segregation and civil rights. Two glaring examples of old systems trying to deal with new inputs. So, I’m curious to see if any of that leaked into his thinking about plants and animals because they seem inextricably linked when viewed from a distance. Although, at this point it’s merely conjecture, and I won’t know more until I read the book.