The residents of the Swiss canton of Valais are used to seeing their mountainsides covered with snow in winter and edelweiss flowers in summer. But as global heating intensifies, they are increasingly finding an invasive species colonising the slopes: cacti.
Authorities say cactus species belonging to the genus Opuntia, or prickly pears, are proliferating in parts of Valais, encroaching on natural reserves and posing a biodiversity threat.
“A lover of dry and hot climates, this invasive and non-native plant is not welcome in the perimeter of prairies and dry pastures of national importance,” the municipality of Fully in the Rhone valley said in a press release announcing the uprooting campaign in late 2022.
Opuntia species and similar cacti have also proliferated in some of the hills around the capital of Valais, in Sion, where estimates suggest Opuntia plants now make up 23-30% of the low vegetation cover. Their presence has also been reported in neighbouring Alpine regions, including Ticino and Grisons in
This kind of outcome being more and more prevalent is going to require planned responses with plants and systems that counteract this. It’s already happening and the growth of that movement has been astonishingly rapid. As Thich Nat Hanh wow rte in ab article commissioned by UNESCO and I posted on my medium bag, thousands, millions of people who are taking action to counteract climate, the loss of plants, trees, etc etc. Climate has, in effect become in many areas and in many ways a love story.
It all seems like one of Immanuel Velikovsky’s books come to life.