The problem is not going away...
I think it is quite clear that the situation I've been describing is going to accelerate. The bad news is that invasives, in terms of the numbers of species and in terms of their abundance, is going to increase. And why I say this is because of the growing human population and the accompanying habitat destruction. If you've been following biodiversity issues, you know that the fragmentation of forests cuts the communication among populations and can be a very devastating force. However, this disruption forms highways for invasive species, so we're getting all these new super highways for the penetration of invasive species into natural communities.
Global commerce is increasing and the World Trade Organization doesn't want any interference with that trend. Global change, such as climate change and habitat change, will increase and favor short lived, invasive type species.  No matter how you look at it, what's happening is going to increase the number of invasive species. Fragmentations, atmospheric nitrogen and deposition, climate change, all these changes are going to increase the numbers of invaders. The increase of vectors will add to that. There's no getting away from this prediction. One piece of evidence for that is the increase in imports of agricultural material into the United States. With these increases in imports and with the capacity to inspect these materials decreasing, we're just being overwhelmed by the amount of stuff coming in.
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