Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
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Notes -
The mosquito-borne disease discussion always bothers me. The diseases are tied to specific species and to me the solution is obviously that we should make an effort to eradicate those specific dangerous species.
There's always a knee jerk "oh no we can't do that". But generally things like the Anopheles mosquito are invasive and well outside of their natural territory. There is just no downside to exterminating them in most areas, and no real downside to completely wiping them out.
In general humans have exterminated, bred & moved very many species throughout history. All to considerable benefit with virtually no ill effect for humans. Most talk about the dangers of loss of diversity are scaremongering nonsense. We could probably even wipe out all mosquitos, and as a result other insects would simply take over its niche. Nature is quite adaptive and there are many overlapping niche species.
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