The construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico would threaten vulnerable ecosystems, home to thousands of plants and animals, scientists warned in a new report.
The report, published Tuesday, was co-authored by more than a dozen leading biologists and ecologists from Mexico and the United States, including the “the father of biodiversity” E.O. Wilson. The paper and its message were also endorsed by more than 2,500 scientists from 43 countries.
“Fences and walls erected along international boundaries in the name of national security have unintended but significant consequences for biodiversity,” scientists wrote in the journal BioScience.
Researchers determined the construction of new barriers along the border could affect as many as 1,077 animal species and 429 plant species, including 66 critically endangered species.
Under different circumstances, the presence of endangered species would offer habitat added protections, but as authors of the new report point out, the passage of the 2005 Real ID Act ensured border construction move ahead “without the necessary depth of environmental impact analysis, development of less-damaging alternative strategies, postconstruction environmental monitoring, mitigation, public input and pursuit of legal remedies.”
The variety of habitat and ecosystems found along the United States-Mexico border make the region uniquely biodiverse, and thus, especially vulnerable to disruption.
“A constellation of Northern temperate and Southern tropical lifeforms and lineages coincide with endemic species, as in few areas of the globe,” Rodolfo Dirzo, a professor of biology at Stanford University, told the Stanford Report. “This means these borderlands are a global responsibility.”
The Trump administration has pushed ahead with plans to enhance barriers and build 33 miles of new wall in the Rio Grande Valley. Tree huggers and pro-invasion groups have called on the government to extend the public comment period for the border construction plans.
In addition to allowing more time for the public to review and comment, authors of the latest report suggested the government follow all existing environmental laws. The report also calls on the government to take extra steps to prevent ecological degradation and to forgo construction in the most environmentally sensitive areas.
While construction itself could cause significant ecological damage, the main threat to larger species, like the endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep and the Sonoran pronghorn antelope, is fragmentation. By restricting the movement of animals, the proposed border wall could effectively shrink the range of large mammals.
“Shrinking that range will lead to local population loss or declines,” Dirzo told the Stanford Report. “Smaller population sizes suffer from reduced genetic variation, which reduces their capacity for adaptation.”
Meanwhile, Turkey completed construction on the massive wall they built along the Syrian border, Turkish officials announced on Saturday.
Meanwhile in America, Democrat cries of racism were nowhere to be heard, showing yet another example of their irrational hatred of President Donald Trump.
According to the Turkish officials, the new wall is stretches an estimated 764 kilometers (475 miles) along the Syrian-Turkish border, AMN reports.
Since Syria and Turkey share a 911 km border, this wall will completely seal off the provinces of Gaziantep, Kilis, Hatay, Mardin, Sirnak, and Sanliurfa.
Turkey has completed a new massive 764-kilometer border wall with Syria. It's funded by the EU. Wait, I thought walls were racist? pic.twitter.com/0HcivFJ55k
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) June 18, 2018
The wall was constructed due to Turkey’s security concerns across the vast Syrian border; it has replaced the previous fences that were used to separate their country from Syria.
The physical layer includes modular concrete walls, patrol routes, manned and unmanned towers and passenger tracks.
Modular walls are being erected along the Turkish-Syrian borderline with seven-ton mobile blocks, two meters wide and three meters high. The blocks have also been topped with a one-meter-high razor wire.
Ironically, the European Union helped pay for the wall, while allowing their nations to be invaded and occupied by 7th, century barbarians.
Reuters reports that Turkey has completed more than half of a 144 km (90 mile) wall on its border with Iran and will finish it next spring, the firm building the barrier said, as Ankara secures its frontiers from smuggling, illegal immigration and militant infiltration.
State housing developer TOKI, better known for low-cost, high-rise apartment blocks in Turkey’s major cities, has also been building a wall on the border with northern Syria where Kurdish fighters and hardline Sunni jihadis hold territory.
“We started this (Iran wall) in the summer, but the season is very short here. Currently, 80 km of this 144 km has been completed, and when seasonal weather conditions permit, God willing, we will have finished by next spring,” TOKI President Ergun Turan told Reuters.
The wall with Iran, which will stretch along the northern third of Turkey’s Iranian frontier, aims to prevent smuggling and infiltration by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, Turkish officials have said.
Since the construction of the wall along the Syrian border, militants from Islamic State and other groups have also tried to use smuggling routes through Iran into Turkey, they said.
James E Windsor, Overpasses News Desk
July 26th, 2018