That cannot be allowed to be a thing. Mosquitoes fill an important niche in a great many ecologies. Any society capable of creating such a thing will surely be able to create a vaccine or treatment. That is where energies should be focused.
Eh, from another angle mosquito-killing gene editing (MKGE) is one of the least destructive ways humans can try to kill all mosquitoes.
Killing all mosquitoes isn't a new idea or one that we haven't tried putting into practice. For instance, take a look at satellite photos of Long Island sometime[0]. You see all those straight lines dug along the coasts? That's where we destroyed thousands of acres of marshes for the purpose of killing mosquitoes around New York.
We also led a pretty destructive campaign against them in the American south, as part of essentially eliminating malaria in the United States. Again, countless wetlands destroyed along with spraying some absurd amount of highly effective pesticides like DDT everywhere.
MKGE is like the most environmentally friendly way we've ever tried to kill all mosquitoes.
It sounds like scientists thought about it, decided that their niche would quickly be filled by other insects - "Life would continue as before — or even better":
jgh|10 years ago
Sounds like it will eliminate malaria and not mosquitos
toomuchtodo|10 years ago
sandworm101|10 years ago
That cannot be allowed to be a thing. Mosquitoes fill an important niche in a great many ecologies. Any society capable of creating such a thing will surely be able to create a vaccine or treatment. That is where energies should be focused.
saalweachter|10 years ago
Killing all mosquitoes isn't a new idea or one that we haven't tried putting into practice. For instance, take a look at satellite photos of Long Island sometime[0]. You see all those straight lines dug along the coasts? That's where we destroyed thousands of acres of marshes for the purpose of killing mosquitoes around New York.
We also led a pretty destructive campaign against them in the American south, as part of essentially eliminating malaria in the United States. Again, countless wetlands destroyed along with spraying some absurd amount of highly effective pesticides like DDT everywhere.
MKGE is like the most environmentally friendly way we've ever tried to kill all mosquitoes.
[0] https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6098489,-73.448941,1067m/dat...
manarth|10 years ago
- http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
- http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2010/07/scientists-go-ahead-kil...
- https://cogito.cty.jhu.edu/43255/up-for-debate-should-we-era...
Of course, whether it's ethically right is worth considering, as is the possibility that the scientists have missed some unintended consequence.
ak217|10 years ago
Source please. I am not aware of any study that confirms this statement. See also http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html.
jf|10 years ago
XFrequentist|10 years ago
I think people just repeat this dogmatically, it doesn't appear to be true.
jqm|10 years ago
But there are arguments about how necessary this role really is I guess.
marcosdumay|10 years ago
Because, well, I don't think you have any idea what you are talking about.