Should we bring back extinct species? Weekly Blog- 12/10/17

An artist’s depiction of a woolly mammoth


Summary:
De-extinction is the process of resurrecting species that have died out or gone extinct. Although once considered a fictional topic, the possibility of bringing extinct species back to life has been raised by advances in selective breeding, genetics, and reproductive cloning technologies. Scientists are working to raise an enormous amount of money in order to perform de-extinction on animals such as the woolly mammoth. Some scientists claim the woolly mammoth could help restore the tundra, and even delay global warming. Due to the fact that ice is melting and the soil under contains carbon which would release if more ice melts. The woolly mammoth could theoretically “punch down the snow in the winter time allowing cold air to come in and in the summertime, they would knock down trees which are very absorbent and release the grasses,” said Steph Yin in We Might Soon Resurrect Extinct Species. 

S&EP-Communicating Information:
Using the platform KQED, I was able to communicate the opinions I had to create friendly arguments and conversations with my classmates about the articles we were reading. The people who had responded to my comments used evidence to back up their points of view, and had different options to me. This allowed me to see a new perspective on the topic. Overall, the KQED Learn platform was a great way to communicate information.

XCC-Cause and Effect:
While doing research on de-extinction, I noticed many cause and effect relationships. Species that become de-extinct have the possibility of not thriving and dying off again. If scientists can de-extinct species, humans will care less about the environment and continue to destroy it. This corresponds to a quote from paragraph 3, in the article, Should We Bring Back Extinct Species? “If we develop a way to bring back extinct species, people may not be as worried because even if a species dies out, we could always bring them back. However, if a species that went extinct due to habitat destruction was revived, there wouldn’t be natural habitat in which they could live.” All in all, bringing back extinct species could have many disadvantages on the environment.

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