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Mosquito Extinction

Started by: GuardianTempest | Replies: 35 | Views: 5,599

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Apr 20, 2015 1:25 AM #1350653
Quote from Zed
And yet half a million die from it every year.

Imagine there was a guy going around choosing a school at random every day and blowing it up. Because that's the death toll we're talking about. If we had the chance to stop him, would we worry about who was going to feed his goldfish when he was gone?


A majority of people that die from malaria are from poverty stricken countries like Africa that have a hard time getting access to good treatment, which is more of a health issue that a mosquito issue.
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Apr 21, 2015 6:34 PM #1351670
Mankind should not be attempting to exterminate any species that is not outside of it's natural habitat. No species is completely independent of all others and the ecological effects that could arise from one species extinction are very unpredictable. A better way would be to work on a cure for the diseases that mosquitoes spread, and strengthen the infrastructure and health systems of the nations that are effected by them. Malaria carrying mosquitoes can be found in many tropical countries, yet you rarely hear about how a huge number of people is dying because of them outside of Africa.
If we have to eradicate a species, our focus should be set on the diseases themselves, not the carriers.
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Apr 21, 2015 6:57 PM #1351675
Quote from Gunnii
Mankind should not be attempting to exterminate any species that is not outside of it's natural habitat. No species is completely independent of all others and the ecological effects that could arise from one species extinction are very unpredictable. A better way would be to work on a cure for the diseases that mosquitoes spread, and strengthen the infrastructure and health systems of the nations that are effected by them. Malaria carrying mosquitoes can be found in many tropical countries, yet you rarely hear about how a huge number of people is dying because of them outside of Africa.
If we have to eradicate a species, our focus should be set on the diseases themselves, not the carriers.


Highly optimistic and idealistic, but practically impossible to carry out. If you haven't heard of a huge number of people dying of mosquito related diseases outside of Africa, thats because you haven't done any research on it. In India alone, almost 50,000 people died in 2014 from mosquito borne diseases.

In principal, you are correct. It is more humane to fight diseases than carriers. But won't happen. While you're out looking for a cure, strengthening infrastructure, and erecting sturdy health systems, children will die and more will suffer. I am all for completely eradicating mosquitoes wherever humans live. It is easier and quicker. Where I live alone, in the last ten years, the government has been clamping down on stagnant water pool, using pest control methods to wipe out mosquito-laden areas etc and there has been a steady decline in the mosquito-related illnesses, and no great eco-system has been wiped out here as a result of all the innocent mosquitoes dying.
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Apr 23, 2015 12:51 AM #1352122
Quote from Nish
Highly optimistic and idealistic, but practically impossible to carry out. If you haven't heard of a huge number of people dying of mosquito related diseases outside of Africa, thats because you haven't done any research on it. In India alone, almost 50,000 people died in 2014 from mosquito borne diseases.

In principal, you are correct. It is more humane to fight diseases than carriers. But won't happen. While you're out looking for a cure, strengthening infrastructure, and erecting sturdy health systems, children will die and more will suffer. I am all for completely eradicating mosquitoes wherever humans live. It is easier and quicker. Where I live alone, in the last ten years, the government has been clamping down on stagnant water pool, using pest control methods to wipe out mosquito-laden areas etc and there has been a steady decline in the mosquito-related illnesses, and no great eco-system has been wiped out here as a result of all the innocent mosquitoes dying.


As I said, we shouldn't exterminate species that are within their natural habitat. Clearing a species out of a certain place that it does not really belong in, is not the same as driving it extinct. I'm fine with ridding cities and towns of mosquitoes.
I don't think that pushing for better health systems in these countries is that far fetched. India has one of, if not the fastest growing economies in the world, and many countries in Africa are growing fast. Standard of living is going up quick, though it is true it will take a while before it reaches western countries.
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Apr 23, 2015 11:40 AM #1352243
Quote from Gunnii
As I said, we shouldn't exterminate species that are within their natural habitat. Clearing a species out of a certain place that it does not really belong in, is not the same as driving it extinct. I'm fine with ridding cities and towns of mosquitoes.


What happens when their natural habitat is turned into cities and people move into them? And what happens in places like African where humans and mosquitoes have the same natural habitat?

Quote from Gunnii

I don't think that pushing for better health systems in these countries is that far fetched. India has one of, if not the fastest growing economies in the world, and many countries in Africa are growing fast. Standard of living is going up quick, though it is true it will take a while before it reaches western countries.


Fastest growing economies don't equal better health systems. It equals better health systems for those who can afford it. One of the by-products of a fast growing economy is a rapidly downtrodden working class. How many children need to die while we are setting up new systems and infrastructure?

But yeah, no need to drive them extinct in places where they don't interact with humans. But in a theoretical situation where all mosquitoes live in places inhabited by humans, my vote is for the "Kill them all" button.
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Apr 23, 2015 3:03 PM #1352291
Quote from Nish
What happens when their natural habitat is turned into cities and people move into them?


I said I was fine with them being killed within cities and towns. The question in this scenario would be whether sacrificing this habitat for human settlement is justifiable, which depends on different circumstances. There you've also got to consider way more species then just mosquitoes.

Quote from Nish
And what happens in places like African where humans and mosquitoes have the same natural habitat?


That is a trickier situation. I wouldn't oppose some measures to lower or exterminate some populations of mosquitoes in select places, but the methods to do that would have to be pretty well targeted.

Quote from Nish
Fastest growing economies don't equal better health systems. It equals better health systems for those who can afford it. One of the by-products of a fast growing economy is a rapidly downtrodden working class. How many children need to die while we are setting up new systems and infrastructure?


While the distribution of wealth is definitively a problem, and getting worse, the fact of the matter is that economic growth means a higher standard of living. While some people are getting a bigger portion of the wealth, everyone is still getting more(Poverty is on a steady decline globally, although a lot of people are still struggling).
How should the malaria carrying mosquitoes be extinguished quickly and efficiently, without threatening other species as well? This does not refer to cities, but their natural habitat.