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Yes, I am in favor of exterminating every last mosquito. I’d rather deal with any results than the mosquitos themselves. Also I had a long conversation with a s

Yes, I am in favor of exterminating every last mosquito. I’d rather deal with any results than the mosquitos themselves. Also I had a long conversation with a specialist in a company working on this and they convinced me that it wouldn’t actually be a big problem like some say.

nkozyra 6y ago
> it wouldn’t actually be a big problem like some say Well this is the law of unintended consequences in action. Many people don't think it will have any negative effect but we don't know. Nature is extraordinarily complex and disrupting it in such a huge way almost always carries knock-on impact.
- smabie 6y ago
  Saying we are too stupid to ever know anything is a pretty anti-scientific attitude. Maybe global warming is gonna make the world so much better, after all, we don't really know anything. It's impossible to actually live your life if you just throw your hands up and say "we don't know". What we do know is that mosquitos have killed more humans than probably anything else ever. Shouldn't that be impetus enough to actually do something about it? Of course, the problem is made worse by the fact that the people who are advocating against doing anything aren't the people that mosquitos are killing. If you knew a lot of people who had died from Malaria, you might be singing a different tune.
  - nkozyra 6y ago
    > Saying we are too stupid to ever know anything is a pretty anti-scientific attitude. It's also a straw man. I didn't say we're "too stupid" to "ever know anything." So let's at least engage in good faith. Should we "do something?" Sure. And we have, for centuries. Did you miss anti malarial drugs, physical detriments and mitigations? "Advocating against doing anything" is another gross straw man argument.
- pnako 6y ago
  Yes, and? It's not going to change the orbits of planets. Ecosystems will have to adapt to mosquitoes disappearing, like they did when countless other species disappeared.
leeoniya 6y ago
> Also I had a long conversation with a specialist in a company working on this and they convinced me that it wouldn’t actually be a big problem like some say. and a specialist working for an oil company convinced me that climate change happens all the time. he wasn't technically wrong, except that he wasn't around to enjoy those other times to attest that it would be "no big deal".
seph-reed 6y ago
Super down for this. First test it on a small isolated island. I think the main reason people don't like camping or nature is because of mosquitos and biting ants. This dislike of outdoors converts directly to a lack of environmentalism. I don't know the conversion rate, so who knows how much more we'd care for nature minus mosquitos, but if we're destroying the planet either way, we should at least enjoy some part of life without these parasites.
- enchiridion 6y ago
  Let's take care of ticks whole we're at it!
  - epicureanideal 6y ago
    Absolutely. Saber tooth tigers. Check. Dire wolves. Check. The environment adapted just fine to the loss of these species. The 1000s of other species made extinct recently... Oops! ...But again, the natural ecosystem didn't irrecoverably collapse. After eliminating so many much more valuable or interesting species (IMO), I certainly don't want to stop right when we're getting to ticks and mosquitoes.

nkozyra 6y ago

> it wouldn’t actually be a big problem like some say Well this is the law of unintended consequences in action. Many people don't think it will have any negative effect but we don't know. Nature is extraordinarily complex and disrupting it in such a huge way almost always carries knock-on impact.

smabie 6y ago
Saying we are too stupid to ever know anything is a pretty anti-scientific attitude. Maybe global warming is gonna make the world so much better, after all, we don't really know anything. It's impossible to actually live your life if you just throw your hands up and say "we don't know". What we do know is that mosquitos have killed more humans than probably anything else ever. Shouldn't that be impetus enough to actually do something about it? Of course, the problem is made worse by the fact that the people who are advocating against doing anything aren't the people that mosquitos are killing. If you knew a lot of people who had died from Malaria, you might be singing a different tune.
- nkozyra 6y ago
  > Saying we are too stupid to ever know anything is a pretty anti-scientific attitude. It's also a straw man. I didn't say we're "too stupid" to "ever know anything." So let's at least engage in good faith. Should we "do something?" Sure. And we have, for centuries. Did you miss anti malarial drugs, physical detriments and mitigations? "Advocating against doing anything" is another gross straw man argument.
pnako 6y ago
Yes, and? It's not going to change the orbits of planets. Ecosystems will have to adapt to mosquitoes disappearing, like they did when countless other species disappeared.

leeoniya 6y ago

> Also I had a long conversation with a specialist in a company working on this and they convinced me that it wouldn’t actually be a big problem like some say. and a specialist working for an oil company convinced me that climate change happens all the time. he wasn't technically wrong, except that he wasn't around to enjoy those other times to attest that it would be "no big deal".

seph-reed 6y ago

Super down for this. First test it on a small isolated island. I think the main reason people don't like camping or nature is because of mosquitos and biting ants. This dislike of outdoors converts directly to a lack of environmentalism. I don't know the conversion rate, so who knows how much more we'd care for nature minus mosquitos, but if we're destroying the planet either way, we should at least enjoy some part of life without these parasites.

enchiridion 6y ago
Let's take care of ticks whole we're at it!
- epicureanideal 6y ago
  Absolutely. Saber tooth tigers. Check. Dire wolves. Check. The environment adapted just fine to the loss of these species. The 1000s of other species made extinct recently... Oops! ...But again, the natural ecosystem didn't irrecoverably collapse. After eliminating so many much more valuable or interesting species (IMO), I certainly don't want to stop right when we're getting to ticks and mosquitoes.