Analysis Of Emma Marris's In Defense Of Everglade Pythons

Emma Marris’ blog, “In Defense of Everglade Pythons,” exhibits that humans have controlled the relationships between the already existing ecosystem within the Florida Everglades, by the latest introduction of pythons, “It’s the blame-the-invasive species narrative…”(Marris). One major method that people have favored unknowingly at times to manipulate nature is introducing a new species to an already working ecosystem. Therefore, people have controlled nature significantly in the U.S. since 1492, when Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Humans have altered environments and how that new species will develop. They have overpopulated and underpopulated current places and animal inhabitants. And they have even changed environments for

largely since we learned there was a “West Indies.” An example would be when Christopher Columbus deployed cattle in Hispaniola, which changed the existing ecosystem within and eventually even caused the worst. “There was trouble from the very beginning: during his second journey to Hispaniola, Columbus brought cattle infected with smallpox, which wreaked havoc in the area”(Poltorak). The introduction of cattle led to a shift in the local system and caused several deaths of the Native people, but they continued to expand to the North. “In the early 16th century, fishermen from Europe were drawn to New England's abundant codfish stocks and began trading with several local tribes. Once again, the contact had a devastating effect on the health of the Natives, who, on top of everything else, now also had less cod”(Poltorak). Moreover, every time a person examines a new area, they control it in some way by trying to alter the existing ecosystem to how they desire, not always seeing how they affect the current

Experiments can vary and results can be unknown, “Even the planned introduction of lynxes into the Colorado wilderness may not be enough to stabilize the population, let alone allow it to grow”(Quiet Lynxes Ignite Furor). “The lynxes were brought from British Columbia. Wearing radio collars, they will be closely monitored over the next three years to see how they adapt to their new surroundings”(Quiet Lynxes Ignite Furor). Hopefully with these tests they acknowledge the causes of introducing a new species to an already existing ecosystem and they limit the negative