2011-12-02, 04:39 AM
The number of species that have gone extinct undoubtedly outnumbers the species currently on the planet. There were ripple effects in all of those extinctions, some positive for other species some negative. What we're talking about here is literally the most damaging species to humanity. If it's not okay to wipe this out for our sake, its not okay to wipe anything out.
But what makes something dying out naturally any qualitatively better than it being killed off by humans? Some kind of weird communal guilt environmentalists seem to feel for every other member of their erstwhile race? The idea that nature has to "run its course"? That's absurd, by merely existing we interact with nature. Nature arbitrarily murders species all the time, and it's not for some glorious sacred holy balance that a weird anthropomorphization of the planet "wants." It happens because a species is outcompeted for food, is particularly tasty as food, or in this case, when the dominant species on the planet finds an extremely convenient solution to ending its overwhelmingly negative effects.
For once a species can die to benefit us. There is no consequence to wiping out these mosquitoes, forseen or unforseen, that is worse than the status quo.
But what makes something dying out naturally any qualitatively better than it being killed off by humans? Some kind of weird communal guilt environmentalists seem to feel for every other member of their erstwhile race? The idea that nature has to "run its course"? That's absurd, by merely existing we interact with nature. Nature arbitrarily murders species all the time, and it's not for some glorious sacred holy balance that a weird anthropomorphization of the planet "wants." It happens because a species is outcompeted for food, is particularly tasty as food, or in this case, when the dominant species on the planet finds an extremely convenient solution to ending its overwhelmingly negative effects.
For once a species can die to benefit us. There is no consequence to wiping out these mosquitoes, forseen or unforseen, that is worse than the status quo.