Sustainability around the world: South America

By Gillian Phair

Intensifying climate change exacerbates viruses such as Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika, as the mosquitoes that carry them find new humid habitats and breeding grounds.

On the Brazilian Cayman islands, they plan to release new genetically engineered mosquitoes to fight the spread of these life-changing diseases. The Aedes aegypti mosquitoes breed offspring that die young, limiting their population by up to 90 percent, as was shown in trial experiments. On the Cayman Islands it is hoped that this scheme will protect a community of 300,000 people.

This initiative really demonstrates how alarming the climate-induced disease problem is. Essentially, in order to protect humans against these powerful diseases, entire species of insect are being genetically engineered to self-destruct. Is this too far?