From the May/June issue of the journal American Scientist come this article about microrganisms, chemicals and inorganic particles that travel across the globe in dust. The above link goes to an abstract rather than the full story, but there's a nice set of related web links at the bottom of that page. Some people would not consider arrival of bacteria or fungal spores in this manner as an invasion, since it occurred without the aid of humans. But the reality is that you could probably find a human aspect to all environmental problems, sometimes in the most indirect ways. (To be fair, dust storms can also have positive effects on the environment as well.)
(Thanks to a member of the ALIENS-L listserver for posting the link to this story.)
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