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In 2008 it was proposed to the Geological Society of London that we had entered a new geological era, the Anthropocene. This proposition, based on geological and biological evidence, argued that Earth is now experiencing an extinction event that rivals any in the history of life. Given the understandable concern that we are in the millennia-long process of effecting a cataclysm on our planet, it may come as a surprise that researchers are now developing a technology that could allow for the deliberate eradication of any given species.
Mosquitoes are deadly disease vectors. Dengue fever, West Nile virus, and malaria are just a few of the calamities they help spread. Hundreds of millions of people suffer every year from mosquito-borne illnesses. Often, our best defense is to stop or kill the insects—we erect nets to keep them at bay, fight them with pesticides, and have even used the “sterile insect technique,” which destroys a natural population through the release of large numbers of sterilized males. Were they to disappear entirely, some people maintain that the biosphere wouldn’t miss...
Mosquitoes are deadly disease vectors. Dengue fever, West Nile virus, and malaria are just a few of the calamities they help spread. Hundreds of millions of people suffer every year from mosquito-borne illnesses. Often, our best defense is to stop or kill the insects—we erect nets to keep them at bay, fight them with pesticides, and have even used the “sterile insect technique,” which destroys a natural population through the release of large numbers of sterilized males. Were they to disappear entirely, some people maintain that the biosphere wouldn’t miss...