Human Movements: Consequences to Global Biogeography

Abstract

The examples discussed throughout this book show that globalization influences modern society’s social, political, and economic structures. However, globalization also impacts the biological and scientific environments. Lewellen’s definition that “contemporary globalization is the increasing flow of trade, finance, culture, ideas and people brought about by the sophisticated technology of communications and travel and by the worldwide spread of neoliberal capitalism and it is the local and regional adaptations to and resistances against these flows” (2002, 8–9) misses the accidental movements of nonhuman species. Although many of the trends in increased globalization have been going on since the beginning of trade itself, the scale has grown substantially in the past fifty years. The latter half of the twentieth century has seen an exponential increase in the number of species being transported between distinct geographically based ecosystems as a result of advances in technology, especially transportation. These technological advances are the direct result of globalization.¹ As the number of multinational corporations has increased in the latter half of the twentieth century (Gabel and Bruner 2003, 3), so has the total tonnage of materials being moved between continents by these corporations. Additionally, Gabel and Bruner observe, “The transportation revolution led to shrinking the time it takes to get people and materials from here to there” (2003, 9).