
1989 California Medfly Attack - eindiran
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_California_medfly_attack
======
mullingitover
Eradicating harmful insect species using CRISPR gene drives is so tempting. We
could wipe out Medflies with it (without spilling a single drop of pesticide),
and even more importantly, we could drive the mosquitoes that cause
malaria/yellow fever/dengue/etc to extinction. There are a lot of worries
about the side effects, but I'm equally worried about the consequences of
failing to use it. There's a lot of attention paid to the 100k coronavirus
deaths, and not to minimize those, but they pale in comparison to the equally
tragic and preventable malaria deaths which go practically unnoticed.

~~~
ISL
Early in the days when nuclear physics found application, it promised to bring
great benefit to society in addition to its tremendous utility in warfare.
There are lots of opinions about this sort of thing, but it is a fact that our
society has great difficulty dealing with nuclear waste. Furthermore, while
accidents are rare, they have enduring impact in the locations where they
occur.

Today, of all days, we all feel the impact of an uncontrolled and
exponentially-spreading biological disaster. Gene drive can have a similar
impact, if it goes awry.

To wield a weapon of extinction that we barely understand is folly. There are
as many opportunities for loss of control through mutation as there are
mosquitoes. While the biomechanics probably don't work out, it seems like a
bad idea to attempt such an extinction when each of our tiny adversaries are
equipped with hypodermic needles and a penchant for mammalian blood.

Your point regarding the consequence of _not_ acting is very well-taken. It
only takes a day or two in a country with tropical disease to understand how
crippling it is, not just to individuals, but to entire continents of people.
The happiness of billions of lives does hang in the balance. Before going with
the "nuclear" (or should I write "CRISPR"?) option, one should explore every
other avenue to its end.

I'm a physicist -- I see in CRISPR all the good and bad that physicists
encountered at the dawn of the nuclear age. Be real, real careful with it.

~~~
Gravityloss
There are also other issues. Technology has advanced and information is more
easily available. Nuclear technology has proliferated - even small countries
can nowadays use it, and probably many large companies also could.

Biotech could be harmful in a massive way, done by a much smaller operator.

So "we" don't really get to say. Someone will just use these technologies.
This is what Bill Joy wrote of in 2000, in the essay "Why the future doesn't
need us". How do we organize society around this different harm dynamic?

EDIT: In some sense, nuclear technology is a great success story. Not used in
anger since the second world war. Countries like Italy and Sweden had nuclear
programs, but they didn't end up there. (Ariane and Vega solid boosters are
Italian for that reason.) Political ways were found to contain it.

~~~
awakeasleep
I hadn't imagined a large, energy intense company running their own reactor
before reading your comment. What an idea to start the morning!

------
djsumdog
There's a documentary on The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) that's really
interesting. Many of them had noble goals, but their message was lost in the
violence/destruction they caused. The FBI ended up letting one of the worst of
them go after a plea deal where he ratted out other members who had moved on
with their lives.

~~~
thisistheend123
Hey, do you have a link to the documentary?

~~~
notadog
I believe the title of the documentary in question is If a Tree Falls: A Story
of the Earth Liberation Front.

~~~
djsumdog
Yes that's the one. Thanks for looking it up. I highly recommend it.

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brownbat
This led me down a rabbit hole into the sterile insect technique, where large
numbers of sterile insects are released to reduce the population.

Looks like Alphabet's Verily has been testing it on mosquitoes in Fresno:
[https://blog.debug.com/2020/04/nature-biotechnology-
features...](https://blog.debug.com/2020/04/nature-biotechnology-features-
debug.html)

~~~
branko_d
> large numbers of sterile insects are released to reduce the population

This has been done successfully on the flash-eating screwworm:

[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-
ea...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-eating-worms-
disease-containment-america-panama/611026/)

------
say-vagnes
> A person or group calling itself "The Breeders" took responsibility for the
> bioterrorist attack,[4] as financial retaliation for the environmental
> damage caused by the state's Malathion aerial spraying;

> It was instead ordered that, rather than 1-2 aerial sprayings of the
> infected communities, more than a dozen sprayings would be necessary over a
> period of months.[18] In addition, Malathion was no longer used alone, but
> mixed in a 4:1 ratio with Nu-Lure0 bait to attract insects to the area.[19]

I know, I know, hindsight bias. But it is hard to imagine that an increase in
the infestation would not result in an increase of the treatment for said
infestation.

Take note, future protestors. Outcomes are the only thing that matters.

~~~
TrainedMonkey
Sounds like it worked:

> Subsequently, three months after "The Breeders" announced the medfly
> release, the state ended its decade-long Malathion program and sought
> alternate ways to handle destructive insects.

~~~
say-vagnes
Fair point, I suppose on balance their outcome was indeed successful. Thanks
for pointing that out :)

~~~
ookdatnog
> The group promised to make the aerial spraying program politically and
> financially impossible through the coordinated release of thousands of
> medflies.

It's not just that "on balance" they stumbled into accidentally achieving
their goal. They achieved exactly what they set out to achieve, in the exact
way they planned to achieve it.

------
Gunax
I am absolutely fascinated that some evil genius is out there threatening
entomological terrorism.

~~~
jaynetics
I thought the same thing. Might make for a nice James Bond movie, complete
with a love scene interrupted by a rabid swarm of flies.

~~~
saagarjha
That sounds like it’d play quite poorly among viewers.

------
campallison
When I was a little kid in Long Beach I remember some days we couldn't use the
drinking fountains at school and stuff like that because they (city? state?)
had sprayed for medflies that day. I have no details, it's just a childhood
memory.

I had no reason to access that memory except that it's here on HN. As a kid I
had no idea there was anything more to it, but thanks to this post, now I do.
Neat.

------
LeoPanthera
Ironically, I remember the outbreak caused an increase in Malathion spraying,
and being warned not to go outside on spraying days.

~~~
dhosek
I remember the spraying and all the containment efforts, but somehow managed
to be ignorant of the claimed agro-terrorism (although this was happening
during my last year of college and my access to news was limited at best at
that phase of my life).

~~~
acdha
Ditto - I remember the spraying and other control efforts but nothing about it
being intentional, which is odd since it seems like a detail which would have
gotten a lot of attention.

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rrmm
Thanks for the article. That's super interesting from several perspectives
(eco, ethical, state response to threats).

I'm curious if there was any expert speculation on the identity of the
attackers and what they would have likely known wrt the damage that was
possible vs the state's reaction to it.

------
ed25519FUUU
This makes me wonder about the murder hornets showing up in the forests of
Washington. Could it have been a misguided person who intentionally introduced
them?

~~~
selimthegrim
Don’t give anyone any bright ideas or we’ll end up with the sodomy geese next.

------
xtiansimon
> “...took responsibility for the bioterrorist attack,[4] as financial
> retaliation for the environmental damage caused by the state's Malathion
> aerial spraying”.

Awkward— This paragraph is confusing, because it sounds like the complaint
preceded the event that caused it.

------
andresgottlieb
Just last week I watched the 1993 movie Short Cuts, and learned about this
event. Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon at it's best.

~~~
heavyset_go
I just watched _Short Cuts_ , too, so imagine my surprise reading your
comment.

------
aaron695
This will almost certainly NOT be done deliberately.

This is a common meme. It always turns out false or not proven (because it's
false). See Tasmania and foxes.

It is an effective technique to harm the population, but since there is no
terror it makes for crappy terrorism.

You'd need an informed public for this to work.

------
mixmastamyk
The article wasn’t clear to me on cause and effect. Did the group really
release medflies in response to spraying to contain them? Resulting in more
spraying, for a few months at least? Sounds odd.

~~~
DrScump
_Sterile_ male flies were released to reduce successful matings of queens.

~~~
saagarjha
That sounds like the solution that was partaken to resolve the problem?

~~~
DrScump
They aren't spraying to kill the _sterile_ flies.

------
b34r
“The Breeders”

~~~
mullingitover
That's where that band got their name from!

~~~
rospaya
I thought that it's from a derogatory term for heterosexuals.

------
ed25519FUUU
> _A person or group calling itself "The Breeders" took responsibility for the
> bioterrorist attack,[4] as financial retaliation for the environmental
> damage caused by the state's Malathion aerial spraying_

Some of the most evil people on this planet are “good people” who believe the
ends justify the means.

~~~
vkou
> Some of the most evil people on this planet are “good people” who believe
> the ends justify the means.

Are you talking about the people who were spraying Malathion?

~~~
ed25519FUUU
No, the eco terrorists.

~~~
vkou
So, the people indiscriminately mass-spraying a dangerous chemical that they
don't even understand into the environment? I'm not sure I'd go as far as to
call that terrorism, but I see why other people would. They do seem to be
convinced that the ends justify the means, and care little for collateral
damage.

