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  • They're the deadliest thing on Earth.

  • They suck your blood and spread disease,

  • killing nearly one million people each year.

  • Are we talking about vampires?

  • Lions?

  • Gorillas?

  • Actually, none of these things.

  • We're talking about mosquitoes.

  • It may sound unusual that a little bug

  • could be this deadly,

  • but it's true.

  • Mosquitoes spread diseases like malaria,

  • yellow fever and the dengue virus.

  • They do it

  • by biting someone who has a particular disease,

  • and then biting you

  • and injecting their saliva into your body.

  • The saliva then enters your bloodstream,

  • causing you to contract whatever virus

  • or bacteria the mosquito picked up.

  • It's not just humans they affect either.

  • Animals and farm livestock all around the world suffer

  • greatly from mosquitoes.

  • Just a single bite can be fatal.

  • So, how do we get rid of these bugs?

  • Well, first we have to figure out

  • exactly how many mosquitoes there are in the world.

  • That's incredibly difficult to find out.

  • It's estimated that there's 7 trillion of them,

  • in Alaska alone.

  • Yup, that's right, Alaska.

  • Due to global warming,

  • and ocean temperatures rising,

  • mosquitoes can live in places like this.

  • And around the world,

  • there are trillions of other mosquitoes.

  • There's a number of ways we could get rid of them.

  • Bats eat mosquitoes without any risks.

  • They can eat 600 mosquitoes in an hour,

  • so if we had enough bats,

  • in theory,

  • they could effectively wipe out mosquitoes all around the world.

  • But then, how would we get rid of the billions of bats in the sky?

  • Okay, maybe that's not the best idea.

  • Another thing we need to understand is

  • how mosquitoes reproduce.

  • You may think they're sucking our blood because we taste good,

  • and they're hungry.

  • But instead of feeding themselves,

  • they're actually doing it for their larvae.

  • So, if we somehow got rid of all our blood and--

  • wait, I know where this is going.

  • Yeah, that's not going to work either.

  • Instead of these options, we may need to release

  • genetically modified male mosquitoes,

  • ones that don't bite, and

  • can only produce sterile offspring.

  • It could take several decades, but

  • with enough of our genetically modified mosquitoes

  • producing sterile offspring,

  • mosquitoes would eventually be eradicated.

  • So now that they're gone,

  • what would happen next?

  • Well, millions of people wouldn't be getting sick and dying each year.

  • You could enjoy being outside in the summer without

  • any fear of being bitten,

  • and animals would be much safer as well.

  • That's right.

  • Not many bad things would happen if we got rid of all the mosquitoes.

  • What about the circle of life and all that?

  • Don't mosquitoes contribute to the food chain?

  • Sure, some birds,

  • bats and frogs eat quite a lot of mosquitoes,

  • but they're still not a hugely significant part of other creatures' diets,

  • and these animals will survive without mosquitoes.

  • And although mosquitoes do pollinate plants,

  • it's not significant enough to justify keeping the species alive.

  • But still,

  • is getting rid of mosquitoes the right thing to do?

  • After all, we would be getting rid of an entire species.

  • We should keep in mind that there are thousands of different species of mosquitoes,

  • but only six of them bite us and spread disease.

  • Not only that,

  • but there are some theories that mosquitoes may help to protect the Amazon rainforest.

  • That's because they're so deadly and annoying to the people trying to cut down the rainforest

  • that at times the bugs actually prevent them from doing so.

  • And let's be real for a second,

  • the human population is growing incredibly fast.

  • Maybe mosquitoes are helping us to keep our population in check.

  • Wait, what am I saying?

  • This would most definitely be a good thing.

  • There would be less disease,

  • fewer people dying,

  • and very few negative consequences.

  • But what if instead of mosquitoes getting wiped out,

  • half of Earth's population did,

  • in an instant.

  • Well, that sounds like a story for another WHAT IF.

They're the deadliest thing on Earth.

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B1 中級

如果我們把所有的蚊子都殺了呢? (What If We Killed All Mosquitoes?)

  • 4 1
    林宜悉 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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