Population Control for Deserving Species

For some people, it appears, even the Anthropogene Extinction Event is not enough. While living through the modest beginnings of one of the most appalling catastrophes to befall our unfortunate biosphere, some brilliant folk at Imperial College London are trying to add one more to the toll of species lost. In this case, however, the consequences will be purely positive, since the species in question is the mosquito, an unpleasant little bloodsucker which kills almost as many African children each year as religion and profiteering combined. It is now possible to alter the insects genetically so that females become increasingly rare, leading to a dramatic decline in population of the sort that Homo sapiens ipsedixit would never wish to contemplate for itself. Eventually the mosquito might even die out altogether, which would be an entirely wonderful thing because the mosquito is an apex predator that interacts with no other species apart from human beings.