The New York Times > Science > Side Effects: No Skeeters, No Problem? Not So Fast

Something for Mayor Sam to read. The guy who claimed he was gonna rid us of the pest...

"In any case, the reality, said Dr. Willott, is that 'we're not going to get rid of the mosquitoes.' It's just impossible, particularly if we want to use methods that don't kill off everything else. DDT is very effective at mosquito control, but it can be disastrous for birds of prey.

When I asked Dr. Willott if she thought it was immoral to try to make a species go extinct, assuming you could do it without hurting other organisms, she thought the question was significant enough to require a formal statement. 'Striving for the unachievable is not an appropriate use of resources,' she said. 'If one acknowledges that eradication is highly unlikely to work or might have serious side effects, the moral thing to do would be to find another way.' In other words, don't be stupid."