Globalization is not new

A vast and deep ocean separates the continents of North America and Europe, but after seven months of travel through exotic Oceania, Asia and Africa, the flora and fauna seems utterly familiar. Here are deciduous trees in bloom or already in full spring leaf. At higher elevations, pines appear and higher still, mountain meadows are beginning to peak out through melting snow.

There are differences, of course, and closer investigation reveals that the species are not the same on both sides of the sea. The morning chorus is louder than in Oregon, and the voices of the birds are as foreign to my ear as the multitude of languages spoken by the local human inhabitants. Birds that are familiar — European Starlings and House Sparrows — are natives, not invasives, here, and occur in smaller numbers, natural parts of communities established long ago.

Interestingly, there are North American invasives on this side of the Atlantic. Prickly pear cactus line the roads of Spain, just as they did in Africa, reportedly brought to Europe by Columbus on his return from the New World and spreading on their own or with human help. Other biogeographic patterns reflect journeys taken well before explorations on sailing ships as plants and animals dispersed across Palearctic longitudes over land and ice bridges, or were blown or flown on the wind.

All of this is evidence that globalization is nothing new.