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Mao started a campaign to kill all sparrows because they eat the "grain of the people".

Well, right after that, insects started proliferating, so then they had to exterminate all of them.

Among the insects killed, pollinators died. So that region now looks completely Marsformed and now all agriculture required pollination by hand.

Killing a species can start a slippery slope.




I've heard this story before. I think it was on a documentary about the source of General Tso's Chicken (and I'm not making a joke), but I don't recall for sure... Do you have a reference?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign


Sure but not all species play an equally critical role in the ecology.


Insects and fish eat mosquito larva. That means you would be affecting numerous other species by removing the mosquito.




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