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Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes

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Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes

#311

Post by coldtea »

alwaysdoit wrote: post #38

We've done this lots[1] of[2] times[3] when it threatens agriculture, but when it threatens the lives of poor people in third world countries, suddenly we're worried about the ecosystem? There will be an environmental impact, but it will be from hundreds of millions of humans not getting malaria and climbing their way out of property, not from the lack of mosquitoes in the ecosystem. It's still a significant problem,…

>There will be an environmental impact, but [...] not from the lack of mosquitoes in the ecosystem

Citation needed.

Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes

#312

Post by coldtea »

kls wrote: post #118
Avshalom wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Alaskan AND a Floridian: If they wanna auction/raffle off the privilege of throwing the switch I would attempt to give them all my money.

I am pretty much ground zero of where they want to release them down here in the FL Keys and I am all for it. The amount of chemicals they pump out in the summer months is enough to sway me towards the belief that it can not be much if any riskier. When we hear the hum of the mosquito truck we have to yell, to our kids playing outside, to get in the house and stay out of the mist. Most of the other locals are vehemen…

>The amount of chemicals they pump out in the summer months is enough to sway me towards the belief that it can not be much if any riskier.

That's the spirit.

/s

Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes

#313

Post by tmptmp »

vegardx wrote: post #301
cb18 wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

threatens the lives of poor people in third world countries, suddenly we're worried about the ecosystem? I don't know how this will be received. I don't even know how I feel about it. But someone has to ask the tough questions. Is it evolutionarily prudent to go about saving people who can't save themselves? our current solution of "let all the poor people die" is not a good one. I don't think that is our "current so…

Hold on, evolution stopped being the driving force for human development a long time ago. The question you should be asking is how we can accept that so many people are unable to save themselves because of actions we (developed world) have taken. Both recently and in the past.

>>The question you should be asking is how we can accept that so many people are unable to save themselves because of actions we (developed world) have taken. Both recently and in the past.

The developed world (mainly western) has inflicted some atrocities on the other parts but that is not what you trying to picture here. There were countless examples of even the tauted-to-be-benevolent tribal people (e.g. African) attacking and trying to wipe out other tribes throughout the world history.

Alas, currently it has become fashionable to put the entire blame on developed western world. This is propaganda (the one that Marxists and communists also love to spread).

I am not a westerner but I do acknowledge many great deeds done by the westerners in the other parts of the world. Internet, electricity, railways, trucks, roads, aeroplanes, mobile-phones, project Gutenberg, concrete, internet archive, Wikipedia, better agriculture practices, agro machines: take your pick. Also add to that the recent initiatives like MIT OCW.

These things which the western world has given to the entire world there is no parallel such benevolent behaviour in the human history. I am grateful to the developed world for such acts of courage and rising above one's own good and one's own religious sentiments.

I am an Asian, and I do know how mean and malevolent our own people had been and have been even now. Countless massacres and oppressive practices by the Islamists and communists and other tribes and groups.

Personally for me, the projects like Internet, internet archive, Wikipedia and OCW have been so beneficial that I cannot imagine myself educating me without them at such a low cost.

BTW, evolution is a complex phenomena but social structures are also important in overall progress of the society. The western developed societal structure is the best societal structure as of yet.

W.r.t. this it is no wonder, for many people here (including me), the western world seems like heaven.

Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes

#314

Post by hoorayimhelping »

dmd wrote: post #274
kls wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty much ground zero of where they want to release them down here in the FL Keys and I am all for it. The amount of chemicals they pump out in the summer months is enough to sway me towards the belief that it can not be much if any riskier. When we hear the hum of the mosquito truck we have to yell, to our kids playing outside, to get in the house and stay out of the mist. Most of the other locals are vehemen…

When my mom was little, "it was very exciting when we heard the DDT truck coming and all the kids would run out of their houses or off the beach and run behind the fogging truck...the smell was kind of sweet and running in the DDT fog was fun."

My mother and aunt both have fond memories of doing this - apparently the mist was really cool and refreshing. Also they're both breast cancer survivors.

Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes

#315

Post by ommunist »

kchoudhu wrote: post #294
ommunist wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at this problem from different angle. These two species are only abundant in areas where humans live. The malaria annual death toll is about 440000 lives. Maybe it is more worth of an effort to move humans out of there? Since no one is going to eradicate cars worldwide just because the annual human death toll in car accidents is 1.25 million!

Let me know when you find a place that will accept and support 180MM Bangladeshis and 1B Africans. Kill the mosquitos. It's cheaper in the long run.

Mongolia.

Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes

#316

Post by ommunist »

tropo wrote: post #276
ommunist wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What really ailes me is that all research is concentrated on killing poor mosquitoes, not the Plasmodium, which is the real cause of the disease. Should we also kill all the cats because they carry Toxoplasmae?

Given the that Toxoplasmae causes detrimental brain effects in humans, yes. Absolutely 100% unquestionably yes, without a doubt. We could keep a few cats isolated behind glass in zoos. Isolated cats don't matter.

You understand! Lets apply for IMO grant for that.

Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes

#317

Post by cb18 »

mirimir wrote: post #310
cb18 wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

evolution stopped being the driving force for human development a long time ago. Why in the world would you think that? We're still made of genes aren't we? We still sexually reproduce don't we? because of actions we (developed world) have taken Stark differences existed between the continents long before colonisation. Stark differences exist in areas that were never colonised. Some areas that were colonised are now…

True. But it's social and cultural evolution that matter now.

Societies and cultures are just the emergent results of the interaction of phenotypes. i.e. Culture and people are one and the same.

Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes

#318

Post by ommunist »

theptip wrote: post #187
llamaimperative wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but that isn't even the million dollar question because the answer will never be "yes." The real question is how certain do we have to be about their role before we decide the gamble is worth it? In this thread you see wealthy westerners complaining that mosquitos are a nuisance. In many parts of the world they are holocaust-scale killers. It gets to an age old question re: the precautionary principle, and a lot…

This is the right way to frame it; or perhaps try the counterfactual: by not taking action, we are choosing to allow 0.1 Holocausts/year of deaths to occur. We wipe species off the face of the earth regularly for as little benefit as increasing the land available for soy farming in the Amazon; averting a holocaust per decade seems like a no-brainer when measured on that scale.

Prohibit cars. 1/6 of Holocaust every year will be prevented.

Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes

#319

Post by ommunist »

coryrc wrote: post #201
ommunist wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is much more than a million dollar question. I know local economies depending on mosquito larvae winter haul. They sell those to fishermen. Fish populations depends on mosquito larvae in many lake and river ecosystems.

Millions of lives are more important than a few "local economies".

Prohibit cars. Millions of lives are more important than car industry.

Re: Let's Kill All the Mosquitoes

#320

Post by ommunist »

sportanova wrote: post #203
SimpleXYZ wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, we are talking about millions of people if you go back a few thousand years.

Millions of people if you go back a few years

You know, mathematically speaking, each of us had about 20 million ancestors, if we go back in time. All of them dead now. So what?
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