points by PEJOE 5 years ago

To those who are worried about this test or concerned about ecological impacts - please let my share my context which I hope will make your position more flexible.

My personal context is that my grandfather was president of the Florida mosquito control board, who sprays enormous quantities of pesticides into nature in order to protect human health, and my mother, who works for the CDC on infectious diseases in sub-saharan Africa and South America.

The subset of disease carrying mosquitos are the most deadly disease vector to humans worldwide, and have no consequential energy contribution back to the bottom of the food chain. If you are worried about the food security of an animal or insect who only eats these disease carrying mosquitos, consider the magnitude greater number of insect species pushed near extinction or vastly reduced by our use of pesticides for mosquito control.

With this work, we move one step closer to being able to eliminate disease carrying mosquitos, leave the rest of the mosquito species alone, and finally stop spraying so much pesticide (that causes untold ecological damage) into nature and near human habitation.

While contrarianism is a valuable american (and human) trait, in this situation it is misplaced, mis-informed, and dangerous. An educated man's anti-vaxx, if you will.

Imagine the equatorial portions of the world without malaria, west-nile, yellow-fever, and dengue. Eliminating the largest amount of untold human and animal misery since the invention of anti-biotics, while stopping the indiscriminate use of devastating quantities of pesticides that destroy and distort ecosystems.

These diseases do not only kill, but physically main and mentally injure their hosts for the rest of their lives. In the developed world we are lucky not to have these issues due to pesticides, medicine, and a generally cold climate.

The equatorial countries are often impoverished, and the people who live there suffer from these diseases much more than we do. The contribution of persistent mosquito borne diseases to poverty is enormous and difficult to quantify.

I believe it is only from the most sheltered contexts and outlooks that one can oppose this measure of progress. If you oppose this test think twice - please reconsider. If your opposition is effective, people will die and suffer needlessly.