4 ms·

This needs to happen as soon as possible. According to the WHO http://www.who.int/malaria/en/ http://www.who.int/malaria/en/ There were 216 million malaria ca

This needs to happen as soon as possible. According to the WHO http://www.who.int/malaria/en/ http://www.who.int/malaria/en/ There were 216 million malaria cases worldwide in 2016 with 445 000 deaths. Developing nations, especially in Africa are most severely affected by this. Whoever, manages to eradicate the mosquitoes surely deserves the Nobel prize in Medicine as well as the Nobel Peace Prize.

melling 8y ago
What could go wrong?
- brownbat 8y ago
  Well, it's worth asking. On the other hand, one rebuttal would go something like: P1. We should calibrate our tolerance for risk against the level of harm we're addressing. P2. Mosquitoes are at the high water mark for ongoing harm to humanity. C. We should be more tolerant of risks here than against any or at least most other problems in the world. Another rebuttal would be that a survey of leading biologists and entomologists leads to near unanimity that suddenly erasing mosquitoes from the planet wouldn't really have any downsides on the larger ecosystem: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/kill-em-all/ https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/kill-em-all/ https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html To be fair, note that some rare arctic orchids might be affected: http://www.mosquitoreviews.com/mosquitoes-niche-pollinate.html http://www.mosquitoreviews.com/mosquitoes-niche-pollinate.ht... If you want an updated review of biocontrol more generally, Outside/In has a great episode about it, with interviews with proponents and critics of biocontrol. One takeaway might be that there are a bunch of overlooked success stories, and the widely popularized failures provide a really distorted sample: http://outsideinradio.org/shows/s02e01 http://outsideinradio.org/shows/s02e01 On the other hand, it includes interviews with critics of biocontrol as well, so I feel like you could learn more details about both sides of the discussion. Other contrarian stories about invasives: https://www.wired.com/2011/02/good-invasives/ https://www.wired.com/2011/02/good-invasives/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140724-invasive-species-conservation-biology-extinction-climate-science/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140724-inva... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/science/invasive-species.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/science/invasive-species.... If you want beautiful and complicated historical poetry about a human intervention that lead to a population collapse, The Memory Palace will take you back to the late 1800s: https://player.fm/series/the-memory-palace-110374/episode-131-lost-locusts https://player.fm/series/the-memory-palace-110374/episode-13...
_Microft 8y ago
The number of deaths is true but not the whole truth. It was almost twice as high in the year 2000.

melling 8y ago

What could go wrong?

brownbat 8y ago
Well, it's worth asking. On the other hand, one rebuttal would go something like: P1. We should calibrate our tolerance for risk against the level of harm we're addressing. P2. Mosquitoes are at the high water mark for ongoing harm to humanity. C. We should be more tolerant of risks here than against any or at least most other problems in the world. Another rebuttal would be that a survey of leading biologists and entomologists leads to near unanimity that suddenly erasing mosquitoes from the planet wouldn't really have any downsides on the larger ecosystem: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/kill-em-all/ https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/kill-em-all/ https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html To be fair, note that some rare arctic orchids might be affected: http://www.mosquitoreviews.com/mosquitoes-niche-pollinate.html http://www.mosquitoreviews.com/mosquitoes-niche-pollinate.ht... If you want an updated review of biocontrol more generally, Outside/In has a great episode about it, with interviews with proponents and critics of biocontrol. One takeaway might be that there are a bunch of overlooked success stories, and the widely popularized failures provide a really distorted sample: http://outsideinradio.org/shows/s02e01 http://outsideinradio.org/shows/s02e01 On the other hand, it includes interviews with critics of biocontrol as well, so I feel like you could learn more details about both sides of the discussion. Other contrarian stories about invasives: https://www.wired.com/2011/02/good-invasives/ https://www.wired.com/2011/02/good-invasives/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140724-invasive-species-conservation-biology-extinction-climate-science/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/07/140724-inva... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/science/invasive-species.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/science/invasive-species.... If you want beautiful and complicated historical poetry about a human intervention that lead to a population collapse, The Memory Palace will take you back to the late 1800s: https://player.fm/series/the-memory-palace-110374/episode-131-lost-locusts https://player.fm/series/the-memory-palace-110374/episode-13...

_Microft 8y ago

The number of deaths is true but not the whole truth. It was almost twice as high in the year 2000.