Wac #2 - Should We Bring Back Extinct Species? - 12/20/17

WAC #2 - Should We Bring Back Extinct Species?

Riccardo Gavardoni 8B

What is de-extinction? 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. Why do we want to bring animals back? Some species can help restore the environment. 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. Extinct species has some risks however, there are significant practical, ethical, and legal questions yet to be worked out, such as whether de-extinct species would be protected by the Endangered Species Act or would find sufficient habitat in which to thrive. De-extinction has too many risks and little reward, and most animals are not worth all the time, money, and energy.

We have no idea what could happen if we bring extinct animals back. Could they be invasive? What if there are no predators for the species we are bringing back, would it be overpopulated? Or could it become a new predator and wipe out other species? Just because an extinct species once thrived it the world, doesn’t mean it will thrive today. If we revive an animal that went extinct due to habitat destruction, or a species that is so old it’s habitat does not exist, there wouldn't be natural habitat is which they could live. This results in the restructuring process being useless because there is no point in bringing back an animal only for it to go back extinct soon after. We need to take many things into consideration when we bring back animals. Especially because if we focus on bringing back extinct animals, we may lose focus regarding preventing future species from going extinct. As well as we may lose focus on things such as deforestation. The risks are very high, and the reward is just not worth it.

We have to make a big decision on what we want to prioritize, if we want to spend millions of dollars to resurrect one species at the possible cost of several others,” it would be one step forward, and three to eight steps back,” Says Dr. Bennett.  Other scientists agree with Dr. Bennett that spending money on de-extinction is wasteful, even for a case like the passenger pigeon. Paul Ehrlich, president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University, and author of the controversial book “The Population Bomb,”said that "conservation is vastly underfunded and there is no guarantee that restoring extinct species will work.” There is already a low budget when it comes to conservation of endangered animals, but if we start spending money on bringing back species, that budget will just get smaller and smaller. We would spend millions of dollars to bring one species back, at the cost of several others.

In order for us to bring animals back, we need intact genomes. Which means we have to freeze cell lines taken from species before they went extinct. “If we’re going to de-extinct something that’s any older than something that we recently killed, we’re stuck with ancient DNA,” Shapiro said. Sadly, that means dealing with tiny fragments of DNA that are often tainted with bacteria and other contaminants. This makes it much harder when it comes to resurrecting things such as the woolly mammoth, as we don't have recent DNA. This results us having to spend more money trying to recover more DNA, which is already problematic as money is a problem like I mentioned early. De-extinction has many "ifs", and we don't know if it's reliable.

There are significant practical, ethical, and legal questions yet to be worked out, such as whether de-extinct species would be protected by the Endangered Species Act or would find sufficient habitat in which to thrive. We have no idea what could happen if we bring extinct animals back. Could they be invasive? What if there are no predators for the species we are bringing back, would it be overpopulated? Or could it become a new predator and wipe out other species? Just because an extinct species once thrived it the world, doesn’t mean it will thrive today. We have to make a big decision on what we want to prioritize, if we want to spend millions of dollars to resurrect one species at the possible cost of several others,” it would be one step forward, and three to eight steps back.” De-extinction is very risky, and we don't know if it will help the world, or waste us millions of dollars.