Colerpa Taxifolia
Dec. 22nd, 2004 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
herewiss13Nova last night was about an invasive species of Algae known as Colerpa Taxifolia. Large, lush, capable of growing up to an inch a day and _incredibly_ toxic to the point of being virtually inedible by all sea life and relatively resistant to cold, this species has covered vast swathes of the Mediterrean seabed in the last decade or two, rendering it into a green desert. Patches have sprung up off California and Australia too. Unless you catch it at the very start, it's virtually impossible to eradicate without figuratively nuking the entire ecosystem surrounding it.
The kicker? It's home-grown. A mutant formerly found only in fish tanks and, in fact, cultivated _solely_ for aquarium use. Not found in the wild...until now.
Of course, my reaction to this monster weed:
"If I could rig up some time-delayed oil-barrels, I could hold the entire world hostage! The stuff can be bought at aquarium supply stores around the globe so there'd be no danger of apprehension at customs. Screw airplanes and carbombs, Osama needs to get himself some pond scum from the fish tank. Rigging the Gulf Coast with more potential outbreaks than can be dealt with ought to be worth billions of dollars _alone_! And that's just one coastline of one country."
Truly, I am too nefarious for my own good.
Seriously, though. When people talk about ecoterrorism, this is what they ought to be refering to. It's slower than explosives, sure...but _infinitely_ more destructive. And if people could exercise this amount of ecological foresight for destruction, maybe we'd be capable of doing the same for conservation too. Who knows?
The kicker? It's home-grown. A mutant formerly found only in fish tanks and, in fact, cultivated _solely_ for aquarium use. Not found in the wild...until now.
Of course, my reaction to this monster weed:
"If I could rig up some time-delayed oil-barrels, I could hold the entire world hostage! The stuff can be bought at aquarium supply stores around the globe so there'd be no danger of apprehension at customs. Screw airplanes and carbombs, Osama needs to get himself some pond scum from the fish tank. Rigging the Gulf Coast with more potential outbreaks than can be dealt with ought to be worth billions of dollars _alone_! And that's just one coastline of one country."
Truly, I am too nefarious for my own good.
Seriously, though. When people talk about ecoterrorism, this is what they ought to be refering to. It's slower than explosives, sure...but _infinitely_ more destructive. And if people could exercise this amount of ecological foresight for destruction, maybe we'd be capable of doing the same for conservation too. Who knows?
