The guy who wrote this appears to be a well informed man of exceptional intelligence, and
it really goes to show how screwed we are when scientists and researchers have reached the point where those are the proposed solutions :
George Church: De-Extinction Is a Good Idea
Reviving mammoths and other extinct creatures is a good idea
Image: Carlo Giambarresi
In its June issue Scientific American published an essay stating emphatically that reanimating species such as woolly mammoths from surviving DNA is a bad idea. This dismissal is too hasty. The idea has merit and is worth discussing with an open mind—and with multidisciplinary viewpoints. [and also a very good sense of humor and end of days sarcasm]
The goal of reanimation research is not to make perfect living copies of extinct organisms, nor is it meant to be a one-off stunt in a laboratory or zoo. Reanimation is about leveraging the best of ancient and synthetic DNA. The goal is to adapt existing ecosystems to radical modern environmental changes, such as global warming, and possibly reverse those changes. [Read : the goal is to further fuck-up already fucked-up beyond all recognition ecosystems and fuck them hard until total invagination and then hope for deinvagination and the reversing of the changes induced.]
Ecosystems that depend on “keystone species” have lost the species diversity they once had because some species no longer fit. As environmental change occurs, ancient diversity may be needed again. [There, you see crazy proponents of degrowth? There are alternatives to your regressive technophobic and anti-capitalist movement: ancient diversity! Amen ] For instance, 4,000 years ago the tundras of Russia and Canada consisted of a richer grass- and ice-based ecosystem. Today they are melting, and if that process continues, they could release more greenhouse gas than all the world's forests would if they burned to the ground. A few dozen changes to the genome of a modern elephant—to give it subcutaneous fat, woolly hair and sebaceous glands—might suffice to create a variation that is functionally similar to the mammoth. Returning this keystone species to the tundras could stave off some effects of warming. [ Saved! At last we are saved! Read on, it's worth it.]
Mammoths could keep the region colder by: (a) eating dead grass, thus enabling the sun to reach spring grass, whose deep roots prevent erosion; (b) increasing reflected light by felling trees, which absorb sunlight; and (c) punching through insulating snow so that freezing air penetrates the soil. Poachers seem far less likely to target Arctic mammoths than African elephants. [...]
2 comments:
I'm speechless.
The comments are also pretty interesting. This all makes me wonder what the geo-engineers are up to these days, with their brute force vision.
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