The premise is contingent that all mosquitoes are bad. Turns out there are non blood sucking mosquitos that are eaten by other things, as explained in the article. So basically: blood suckers, yes, other mosquitoes no.
Well, mosquitos are a natural part of ecology on the planet. They've been around for long before humans. As with most other animals, mosquitos are predator to other living organisms, and that helps to keep the prey population in balance. Humans are part of their prey, and they're evolutionarily good at scenting humans out. Nobody questions our ability to wipe out human "predators" like mosquitoes, just that there is obviously a cascading ecological effect since it's not just humans they go after. On the topic of leeches to the planet: let's present the elephant in the room, the Human.
Messing around with extremely complex ecosystems we don't fully understand is something that will probably backfire. But anyway this is not an achievable goal. We can't kill all mosquitoes.
If earth could choose, would it kill every mosquito or every human?
The hubris that we can casually talk about permanently change the ecosystem without consequences
Mosquitoes kill mostly in developing countries, because there is no real effort to eradicate it, same as food independence. Crazy scientific experiments are not needed for it as they were not needed in for developed countries
Let me guess, you live in a place lacking significant mosquito populations?
Where I'm from, they're not dangerous nor carry disease at all, but they're everywhere and incredibly painful and annoying to deal with.
I will not have my enjoyment of a short summer following a long, dark, and cold winter be ruined by these absolute pests. Annihilate every last blood-sucking bug, I say.
Anyone got a better source for or against the claim the article makes that nearly half of all human deaths over the last 50,000 years were caused by malaria? It seems suspiciously high, and at a quick glance the Nature paper linked doesn’t seem to have any justification for the claim.
I say no. There are animals or birds that may depend on them as a food source. The next best thing to do is to find a way of ridding mossies of the malaria parasites.
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[ 0.27 ms ] story [ 54.0 ms ] threadThe hubris that we can casually talk about permanently change the ecosystem without consequences
Mosquitoes kill mostly in developing countries, because there is no real effort to eradicate it, same as food independence. Crazy scientific experiments are not needed for it as they were not needed in for developed countries
Where I'm from, they're not dangerous nor carry disease at all, but they're everywhere and incredibly painful and annoying to deal with.
I will not have my enjoyment of a short summer following a long, dark, and cold winter be ruined by these absolute pests. Annihilate every last blood-sucking bug, I say.