Damned if you do and damned if you don't

[George Pill]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/25/health/crispr-gene-drive-mosquitoes-malaria-study/index.html

[soju]

Well we already wiped out lots of species...I say go for it. Death to the mosquitoes!

[George Pill]

It's interesting that these scientists did even carefully consider what disadvantages might accompany the seemingly shiny advantages such an invention will bring. In old Hawaii, the whaling ships brought the rats and mice which bred uncontrolled because there were no cats. Cats came and cannot control so many rodentia. So someone brought in the mongoose, but it did no good. Rats are nocturnal, and the snake fighters were daytime hunters. Back to step one. Get even more varmints with the increasing population creating lots of garbage they can't get rid of because of lack of burying grounds. NIMBY! Got two garbage-to-energy plants which are wonderful for gasifying rubbish into glass pebbles and creating cheap energy. But still way too much rubbish being produced faster than the burners. Some island off Phuket is having the same problem with garbage plus that movie place called THE BEACH. Bet ya they're gonna dump that trash into the ocean when nobody's looking and help feed the Great Garbage Patch floating in the ocean near me. Thailand, Bali, Indonesia, and all coastal Asian cities are doing it. Into the ocean and it disappears with the current. Out of sight and out of mind. They think they got away with it until it floats back to them at some of the best surfing beaches in Bali. Here in Hawaii there are volunteers who go out and seek plastic trash to catch and bring in to shore for disposal. It breaks my heart to see those video of huge mountains of ropes, nets, floating plastic bottles, etc. They're underwater and that's why nobody pays attention. No can see them. But the whales can and get tangled up in the thick ropes. They end up dragging the attached nets, some filled with dead fishes. For hundreds of miles because nobody can see whales underwater. A month ago someone taped a poor emaciated whale trapped by a constricting collar of rope. This victim was emaciated and in great need of help. But after posting the video on the news this whale disappeared to who-knows-where. Luckily three divers to happened to be at the right place at the right time spotted this teenager and gave chase with only swimfins, snorkel, and goggles. One held his breath and dove down several times to 50-70 feet to try to slice off the collar. Another filmed it with a GoPro camera. It was a great feeling of happiness and relief to see the collar finally slide off. Don't know what it sounds like to yell out underwater. Afterwards the hero said it was no big thing and disappeared. Nobody followed the whale, but we all sure wished it got its health back. I think this whale did turn around and honk it's horn to say "Thanks, Brah. Gotta go and catch up with Mama." About that mosquito DNA tailoring experiment. Mo beddah just forgeddaboudit. All these insect-carrying diseases may actually be a blessing. They are God's way of controlling the world population. Just like with Famine, Pestilence, and War.