Invasive species that wreck crops, ravage forests, spread disease and upend ecosystems are spreading ever faster across the globe, and humanity has not been able to stem the tide, a major scientific assessment said Monday.
The failure is costing well over $400 billion dollars a year in damages and lost income, and that is likely a "gross underestimation," according to the intergovernmental science advisory panel for the UN Convention on Biodiversity (IPBES).
The IPBES report defines invasive species as species that are non-native, cause harm and have relocated due to human activity.
From water hyacinth choking Lake Victoria in East Africa, to rats and brown snakes wiping out bird species in the Pacific, to mosquitoes exposing new regions to Zika, yellow fever, dengue and other diseases, the report catalogued more than 37,000 so-called alien species that have taken root far from their places of origin.
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