The U.S. economy could save billions of dollars a year if the government
would screen for invasive species. Lester Graham reports that prediction is
based on a recent study on screening out problem plants:
Transcript
The U.S. economy could save billions of dollars a year if the government would
screen for
invasive species. Lester Graham reports, that prediction is based on a recent study
on
screening out problem plants:
The study shows when a country screens for potentially harmful species of plants that
could spread like weeds, the cost of the screening is miniscule compared to the cost
of
the damage the plants cause. The study is published in the Proceedings of the
National
Academy of Sciences. It looked at the costs and benefits of Australia’s invasive
species
screening program.
Phyllis Windle specializes in invasive species. She’s with the environmental group
Union
of Concerned Scientists. Windle says it’s long been assumed that screening out pesky
plants would be worth the cost.
“But what this study does is that it really shows that prevention pays off and it
has good
data to illustrate that.”
Factoring in the scale of the U.S. economy to Australia’s, the Union of Concerned
Scientists estimates for an annual cost of a few million dollars, the U.S. economy
could
be spared a few billion dollars in damage by invasive plants.
For the Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.