You would almost think there was a plan the balancing act works so well some times. In the Amazon jungle deforestation of the jungle is causing significant problems and, to be anthropomorphic, nature is fighting back. For each 1% increase in cleared land there is a 8% increase in the the mosquito species Anopheles darlingi, the local species that pumps the malarial parasite into human veins. This is because this species of mosquito is particularly suited to growing in sunlit pools of water which are much more prevalent in cleared land. To put it simply, the more the land is cleared the less inhabitable that it becomes.

I watched a TV show not so long ago presented by David Suzuki, who I generally respect, where he was bemoaning the horror of malaria. On this occassion he missed the point. It may be that malaria is the organism that saves the world by making significant chunks of it uninhabitable to humans.

Read more at Nature.