Comment by sambull

8 years ago

Stupid idea with massive impact, now that it's pretty obvious in they they are a utilized food for many organisms [0].

[0] https://www.newscientist.com/article/2180055-mosquitoes-are-...

10 comments

sambull

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JacobJans  8 years ago

There are many, many species of mosquitoes. Just a few of the species carry malaria. If you kill those species, they will quickly be replaced by the other species in the ecosystem. There would be no negative effect on the ecosystem and countless lives would be saved.

privateSFacct  8 years ago

Interesting to see the first world perspective folks here. Probably all high privilege, fat and rich / well sheltered.

"Stupid idea" - you wouldn't be saying that if your kids were dying around you from something preventable because in some cases a non-native species of mosquito is spreading a deadly disease.

Mosquito abatement is not stupid, and targeting things narrowly here as they are proposing is even less stupid.

I'm serious - have you ever lived in a developing country, or even stayed for a few months? The cluelessness and heartlessness here of the entitled and privileged is kind of shocking.

  • ehaliewicz2  8 years ago

    > "Stupid idea" - you wouldn't be saying that if your kids were dying around you from something preventable because in some cases a non-native species of mosquito is spreading a deadly disease.

    Should we always let people with dying kids make important decisions? I'm not saying you're wrong, but this is a strange argument to make.

    • privateSFacct  7 years ago

      The point I am making is that someone in a rich / sheltered / high lifespan country is calling an idea stupid because it affects a one out of many species of mosquito in a specific area, that is non-native to the area. They seem to totally ignore the benefit in terms of lives saved, both old and young - perhaps because they will not experience the benefit themselves.

      Ironically, what I've noticed. Those same folks go totally ape and over-react to even relatively modest threats to their OWN lifespan.

      Your point is not wrong - the dying kids argument is often used in high lifespan countries to overreact to things. In this case I think it's not an unreasonable point however.