Several of the comments responding to him do address this and at least some of the people commenting do appear to know, or at least know more than Nassim Taleb appears to.
Besides, his statement isn't an argument, and present no facts or information.
> Imbecilic remark. Do you know how many humans would die if we eliminated mosquitos? Any idea?
petters also appears to be correct on what would happen if we had these issues in North America. Your own province kills mosquitos en masse and those ones aren't even carrying deadly disease they are just a nuisance.
Taleb's position in general is one of extreme conservatism when meddling with ecological systems (for example he is also against GMOs). The basis for this conservatism is his general concern with risk in a nonlinear world. He does indeed put forth an argument, which is: can you predict the effects of this? No, you cannot, and possible effects include ecological collapse.
Re: Manitoba, spraying to reduce mosquito populations in urban areas is a whole different ball game from extermination.
Besides, his statement isn't an argument, and present no facts or information.
> Imbecilic remark. Do you know how many humans would die if we eliminated mosquitos? Any idea?
petters also appears to be correct on what would happen if we had these issues in North America. Your own province kills mosquitos en masse and those ones aren't even carrying deadly disease they are just a nuisance.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/deltamethrin-first-u...