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You're comparing individual species with an entire family. Countless animals rely on mosquitoes as a valuable food source. And before someone brings up the tir
by fiblye 11y ago
You're comparing individual species with an entire family.
Countless animals rely on mosquitoes as a valuable food source. And before someone brings up the tired "mosquito predators all eat things besides mosquitoes" argument, people eat food besides grains. It doesn't mean we wouldn't still be 100% fucked if rice and wheat went extinct overnight.
- bsbechtel 11y agoI've heard that's not true. I've never investigated it to verify, and personally thought it was a little hard to believe, but nonetheless your assumption may not be correct.
- nightfly 11y agoI've heard that's not true. I've never investigated it to verify, and personally thought it was a little hard to believe, but nonetheless your assumption may not be correct.
- dllthomas 11y agoI've heard that's not true. I've never investigated it to verify, and personally thought it was a little hard to believe, but nonetheless your assumption may not be correct.
- _AllisonMobley 11y agoWhat's going on here. Is this an HN meme?
- dllthomas 11y agoMy understanding of the situation: the grandparent's comment provided little value, and could be reasonably applied to virtually any comment without adding much opportunity for the reader to educate themselves or to respond. nightfly apparently noticed that "any comment", of course, includes the comment itself. I found that amusing, and carried on in kind.
- _AllisonMobley 11y agoWhat's going on here. Is this an HN meme?
- learc83 11y agoNo one wants to seriously wipe out all 3000+ species of mosquitoes. There are only a few species that are harmful to humans.
- Joof 11y agoHow do you propose to kill only certain species of mosquitoes without killing the rest (and intense collateral damage). Edit: well, I read that article poorly. Sorry!
- maxerickson 11y agoIt's discussed in the article (second page). A summary would be releasing sterile males and gene drives.
- dr_toolittle 11y agoHumans are considered harmful to the world as a whole. There's only one human species that would need to be eliminated to solve that problem. You up for that as well?
- zzazzdsa 11y agoSure thing. Mind if we start with you? /s
- learc83 11y agoI want to eliminate harmful mosquitoes to benefit humanity. I place more value on the well being of humanity than I do on that of the rest of the world. In general, I value the well being of the world as a whole, but mostly because it's beneficial to humanity. If we eliminate ourselves, there can be no benefit to humanity--so no, I am not up for that as well. In this specific case, I don't place any intrinsic value in the life of a mosquito. To me, the only factor in whether it lives or dies should be how much harm or benefit it brings to humanity.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- XFrequentist 11y ago>You're comparing individual species with an entire family. The GP may well have done so, but most extreme proposals are to eliminate parts of the genuses Aedes, Anopholes, and Culex - together about 2% of the genetic diversity of the family Culicidae. >Countless animals rely on mosquitoes as a valuable food source. I'd be interested in seeing some concrete evidence that this is true; I've looked unsuccessfully. Seems to me that there are a few hyperspecialized predators, but generally mosquito population dynamics are too unpredictable for this to arise.
- Gmo 11y agoSpiders ?