Of bats and ash trees

Climate change is a big deal. Behind the micro narratives and the daily turbulence of our busy lives, our world is changing at speeds that boggle the mind.

Humans are clearly the engine driving this planetary evolution. In part it’s the carbon we pump into the air.

But it’s also the critters we carry with us as we hustle and bustle around the globe.

In the short to mid term, invasive species transported by people will likely have a far more profound impact on our ecosystems than changing temperature.

Chris Knight reported recently in the Adirondack Enterprise on the Emerald ash borer, a type of beetle now in Western New York, Quebec and Ontario.

This invader, carried in bundles of firewood, is likely to kill most of the trees along the shore of Lake Flower in my home town of Saranac Lake.

It’s also likely that white nose syndrome, the fungus that’s eradicating bats in the Northeast, was introduced from Europe by humans.

(Candace Page, the Burlington Free Press’s environmental writer, had a brilliant piece about WNS in Sunday’s edition.)

The catalog of invaders seems to grow daily: zebra mussels, lamprey, “creek snot,” Eurasian watermilfoil…

As these organisms eclipse or weaken native populations, altering the food chain, we could see dramatic changes in the fabric of our forests and waterways.

This has happened before on a smaller scale. Dutch elm disease was likely introduced to the United States in a shipment of wooden furniture from the Netherlands.

Through the 1900s, the fungus altered the landscape of urban America, destroying many of the trees that decorated avenues and neighborhoods.

The event we experience could be far more dramatic. What happens if 90% of bat species are abruptly extirpated?

What happens if ash trees — 7% of the forests in New York state — are decimated?

Add to those stresses the incremental pressure of changing temperatures and weather patterns.

In short, humans are conducting a kind of accidental experiment, heating the planet and mixing its ingredients with a giant spoon.

The twist, of course, is that we live inside the Petri dish.

Tomorrow during our regional broadcast, I’ll report on white nose syndrome research continuing in the Champlain town of Willsboro.