A project to revive long-gone species is a sideshow to the real extinction crisis
“We will get woolly mammoths back.” So vowed environmentalist Stewart Brand at the TED conference in Long Beach, Calif., in February in laying out his vision for reviving extinct species. The mammoth isn’t the only vanished creature Brand and other proponents of “de-extinction” want to resurrect. The passenger pigeon, Caribbean monk seal and great auk are among the other candidates—all species that blinked out at least in part because of Homo sapiens. “Humans have made a huge hole in nature in the last 10,000 years,” Brand asserted. “We have the ability now—and maybe the moral obligation—to repair some of the damage.”
Just a few years ago such de-extinction was the purview of science fiction. Now it is so near at hand that in March, Brand’s Long Now Foundation, along with TED and the National Geographic Society, convened an entire conference on the topic. Indeed, thanks to recent advances in cloning and the sequencing of ancient DNA, among other feats of biotechnology, researchers may soon be able to re-create any number of species once thought to be gone for good.
That does not mean that they should, however. The idea of bringing back extinct species holds obvious gee-whiz appeal and a respite from a steady stream of grim news. Yet with limited intellectual bandwidth and financial resources to go around, de-extinction threatens to divert attention from the modern biodiversity crisis. According to a 2012 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, some 20,000 species are currently in grave danger of going extinct. Species today are vanishing in such great numbers—many from hunting and habitat destruction—that the trend has been called a sixth mass extinction, an event on par with such die-offs as the one that befell the dinosaurs (and much else) 65 million years ago. A program to restore extinct species poses a risk of selling the public on a false promise that technology alone can solve our ongoing environmental woes—an implicit assurance that if a species goes away, we can snap our fingers and bring it back.
Ironically, the de-extinction conference immediately followed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting in Bangkok, which underscored just how devastating the trade has been. Reports released to coincide with the meeting revealed that between 2002 and 2011, the African forest elephant population declined by 62 percent from poaching; that fishing kills at least 100 million sharks a year—many of them members of imperiled species; and that between 2000 and 2012, an average of 110 tigers a year were killed (as few as 3,200 of the cats remain in the wild). Poachers slaughter 30,000 African elephants every year for their ivory—the highest kill rate since the 1980s. At this rate, the species could disappear in two decades. So could Africa’s rhinos, prized for their horns.
Already conservationists face difficult choices about which species and ecosystems to try to save, since they cannot hope to rescue them all.
The Latest Bing News on:
Extinct Species Back from the Dead
- Scientists recover RNA from an extinct species for the first timeon September 27, 2023 at 5:14 pm
The genetic material came from a 130-year-old Tasmanian tiger specimen in the collection of the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm and has allowed scientists to better understand how the ...
- Netflix’s ‘Life On Our Planet’ Trailer Brings Extinct Species Back to Life (TV News Roundup)on September 25, 2023 at 7:43 pm
Netflix has released the trailer for its upcoming Morgan Freeman-narrated series “Life on Our Planet,” which brings extinct species to the small screen in an exploration of the lives of Earth’s past ...
- The Tasmanian Tiger Has Been Extinct for 87 Years. It's About to Return From the Dead.on September 25, 2023 at 7:00 am
Thylacines, known more commonly as Tasmanian Tigers, were carnivorous marsupials native to the islands of New Guinea and, of course, the Australian island of Tasmania. Though they died out in New ...
- Scientists recover RNA from an extinct species for the first timeon September 20, 2023 at 4:57 am
“This will add significant depth to our understanding of the biology of extinct animals and help us to build much better extinct genomes,” he added. Ancient DNA, under the right ...
- Scientists Recover RNA From an Extinct Species for the First Timeon September 19, 2023 at 4:06 pm
However, he added, “All the scientific developments required for resurrecting or recreating extinct species back to life will for sure benefit science and society in general, from gene editing ...
- Endangered Animalson September 19, 2023 at 6:19 am
which will help bring the critically endangered species back from the brink of extinction. Four dead sawfish were found on a beach in Western Australia, one of the few places in the world where ...
- Insect Feared Extinct Could be Back From Dead After Almost 30 Yearson August 28, 2023 at 3:31 pm
It may not make the latest episode of “Ghost Hunters,” but the news that the Scarce Yellow Sally Stonefly is back from ... seen in 1995, the species was thought to be extinct.
- The big idea: should we bring extinct creatures back to life?on August 15, 2023 at 7:31 am
We may weep for the dodo, but could and should we bring this lovely bird back from the dead? De-extinction is the science of restoring lost species and it has been in the news, sporadically ...
- De-extinction: Bringing animal species back from the brinkon April 23, 2023 at 6:47 am
He also talks with the founder of Colossal Biosciences, a Texas company working to bring back long-extinct species like the woolly mammoth and dodo bird.
- The Cost of Resurrecting Extinct Species Could be Devastatingon March 24, 2017 at 9:43 am
Advances in genetic engineering have made it possible for scientists to bring back extinct animals, the most promising of which is the woolly mammoth. American and Russian scientists have been ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Extinct Species Back from the Dead
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Extinct Species Back from the Dead” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
The Latest Bing News on:
De-extinction
- Extinction of SEF border service will “bolster security”on September 27, 2023 at 7:58 am
Portugal's minister of internal affairs has promised that the extinction of the SEF border service will "bolster security".
- Lost animal species that returned from extinctionon September 27, 2023 at 3:58 am
Sometimes animals come back from the brink in a more controversial way. De-extinction, also rather dramatically known as resurrection biology, refers to the process of generating an organism that was ...
- Extinction Rebellion takes legal action against water cannon use at A12 protestson September 25, 2023 at 4:00 am
Extinction Rebellion wants to prohibit the use of water cannons during climate protests on the A12 highway through legal means. The activist group announced on Monday that it will file summary ...
- Colossal Biosciences and BioRescue Partnering Up to Save Northern White Rhino from Extinctionon September 21, 2023 at 1:05 pm
When Jurassic Park's John Hammond dreamed up his prehistoric theme park, filled with genetically crafted dinosaur-like creatures, he did so with an eye toward making a buck. Lots of them, actually. He ...
- Texas startup working to bring back mammoths partners to help save nearly extinct rhinoon September 20, 2023 at 3:39 am
Before it was poached to near extinction, the species previously populated areas of Africa including Uganda, Chad, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its two ...
- Scientists Recover RNA From an Extinct Species for the First Timeon September 19, 2023 at 4:06 pm
But the animal has recently been the target of de-extinction efforts, and now, a team of researchers has managed to recover RNA from the creature—the first time such a feat has been accomplished ...
- Edge of Extinction: Pioneering Texas Biotech Colossal and BioRescue Race to Save the Northern White Rhino Specieson September 19, 2023 at 8:43 am
Only two female northern white rhinos remain in the world, marking them as the most endangered mammals on the planet. In a move that diversifies its de-extinction ambitions, Texas-based Colossal ...
- Colossal Biosciences joins BioRescue in its mission to save the Northern White Rhino from extinctionon September 19, 2023 at 7:23 am
Colossal Biosciences (“Colossal”), the world’s first de-extinction company, has teamed up with BioRescue, a consortium initiating and leading the scientific rescue mission of the northern ...
- Colossal Biosciences Joins BioRescue in Its Mission to Save the Northern White Rhino From Extinctionon September 19, 2023 at 1:41 am
With only two living females left, the partnership will contribute to the genetic recovery of the northern white rhino from complete extinction. Colossal developed a pioneering toolkit for the ...
- Colossal Biosciences Joins BioRescue in Its Mission to Save the Northern White Rhino From Extinctionon September 19, 2023 at 1:28 am
Colossal Biosciences ("Colossal"), the world's first de-extinction company, and BioRescue, a consortium initiating and leading the scientific rescue mission of the northern white rhino employing ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
De-extinction
[google_news title=”” keyword=”de-extinction” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]