Millions of GMO insects could be set loose in Florida Keys

Associated Press ^ | Jan 25, 2015 11:36 AM EST | Jennifer Kay

[Olog-hai]

Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in the Florida Keys if British researchers win approval to use the bugs against two extremely painful viral diseases. Never before have insects with modified DNA come so close to being set loose in a residential U.S. neighborhood. […]

Dengue and chikungunya are growing threats in the U.S., but some people are more frightened at the thought of being bitten by a genetically modified organism. More than 130,000 signed a Change.org petition against the experiment. Even potential boosters say those responsible must do more to show that benefits outweigh the risks. […]

Mosquito controllers say they’re running out of options that can kill Aedes aegypti, a tiger-striped invader whose biting females spread these viruses. Climate change and globalization are spreading tropical diseases farther from the equator, and Key West, the southernmost U.S. city, is particularly vulnerable. …

[DanielRedfoot]

Anyone who thinks global warming is real is too stupid to be trusted with genetically modified anything.... Request denied!

[Theoria]

Of course they are food. That is the point. They serve their role in the food chain to further along other species that benefit the desired outcome of the life cycle. They have also served to kill off millions of humans which is also part of that cycle. Nature abhors a vacuum, some other participant will fill that role in killing off persons, or other organisms.

[Defiant]

are they sterile?

Even if they are, I'd like to know more about how they guarantee that.

[fso301]

Dengue and chikungunya are growing threats in the U.S

I'm sure it has nothing to do with the neopagans taking vast areas of productive land and turning it into fetid swamps.

[HereInTheHeartland]

Sounds like a great way to control these diseases.
We need to figure out a similar program to control the population of American liberals (the human kind).

[Born to Conserve]

I think it is so sweet that our culture listens to the dumbest, craziest members of society. They need to be listened to. And it is good that we don’t listen to our brightest, and most conservative members, and in fact chastise them and ridicule them, and tax them.

We are truly an advances society.

[PoloSec]

What could go wrong?

Movies never tell you exactly how it happened; this is the stuff ZOMBIES are made of.../s