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Thinking of ways to reduce mosquitos populations are understandable, and many organisations are working on them, but this proposition to completely eradicate th
by toshk 6y ago
Thinking of ways to reduce mosquitos populations are understandable, and many organisations are working on them, but this proposition to completely eradicate them, mainly with certain technologies, is borderline insanity.
The problems eradication solves are obvious and important to solve.
The problems eradication might cause are less obvious and are potentially disastrous.
- colechristensen 6y agoThere are thousands of species of mosquito, dozens of which transmit malaria, and only a handful which do it really well. Many of the mosquitos are invasive species anyway. The point being, there are many many of species which would fill up the ecological niche left if we extincted a few.
- toshk 6y agoIm surprised with how much certainty you make such a claim. Next to that it's not only the side effect of extinction of one species, but also the unforeseen side effects of the technologies used to accomplish this (extreme) extinction. The whole point of technologists is that they really have to much faith that we both understand these complex ecosystems and complex technologies we just started using. To try to put a technology on grand scale that you don't fully understand and can't control once in the wild is really stupid.