GM Mosquitoes Come to Bali
It sounded like something from a sci-fi B-movie until I joined an online group formed to discuss and protest the release of 400 million mosquito eggs into Bali’s ecosystem on November 13.
The male mosquitoes have been infected with the common bacteria Wolbachia, naturally present in up to 60% of the global insect population. Messages posted to the group decried the forcible introduction of a GMO to Bali, and lamented the plight of the Balinese, already contaminated by mRNA vaccines.
Off the bat, I commented:
Whatever the supposed “science” might be, it sounds like madness. From any sort of permaculture or sustainability perspective, such an intervention in an ecosystem is crazy, and certain to produce unforeseen side effects.
After half an hour on Google I discovered that:
Wolbachia is not present in Aedes Aegypti, the mosquito species that carries the dengue and zika viruses, which are responsible for thousands of deaths and infant microcephaly cases worldwide.
Studies show that Wolbachia blocks the viral infection vectors of zika and dengue via Aedes Aegypti.
Dengue takes 40,000 lives per year globally.
The World Mosquito Program, the body behind the Bali experiment, claims: “Our method does not suppress mosquito populations or involve genetic modification (GM), as the genetic material of the mosquito is not altered.” [https://www.worldmosquitoprogram.org/en/work/wolbachia-method/how-it-works]
I wrote to the online group that Wolbachia mosquitos are not GM, maybe okay, and surely preferable to dengue or zika.
But further study revealed:
Genetically engineered (GE) insects, such as the GE OX513A Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, have been designed to suppress their wild-type populations so as to reduce the transmission of vector-borne diseases in humans. Apart from the ecological and epidemiological uncertainties associated with this approach, such biotechnological approaches may be used by individual governments or the global community of nations to avoid addressing the underlying structural, systemic causes of those infections. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6062015/]
And
The GE OX513A Aedes aegypti has been subject to a germline modification that includes a lethality gene. [Ibid.]
WMP is lying, or at best evasive, in qualifying non-GMO to apply only to the mosquito and not the Wolbachia it is infected with in the lab.
As the same article points out, WMP uses technology backed by guess who.
For many, that’s the final nail in the coffin. The Covid phenomenon and Epstein scandal threw up plenty of dirt about the man who has the World Health Organisation in his pocket. Who knows what goes on his head? A tug-of-war between the vast profits from vaccines and other “solutions” and mounting panic at world population growth? Never fear, Microsoft is here. Lets spray the sky with aluminium foil and mine crypto with human heartbeats!
Either Prometheus has either gone rogue or turns in his grave. Fire is one thing. Conquering Nature is another. Meddling with Jacob’s Ladder—DNA—risks severing our connection to Nature altogether. What are we then?
Read all the terraforming sci-fi you like. Marvel at the edible algae hanging from the skyscrapers of Neom, but know such a victory is a Pyrrhic one.
I was under the spell of scientific materialism and transhumanist doctrine that human freedom can only be attained through mastery of Nature..... what hubris, what folly -- the kind that civilizational collapse is made of.... may my own near-instantaneous awakening from this lie be a prayer for all of those still under its spell...