De-extinction, the same kind seen in “Jurassic Park,” has long been a dream of geneticists, biologists and dinosaur fanboys everywhere. However, in recent years, legitimate research has been done to attempt to bring back the most iconic species of the ice age: woolly mammoths. Costing millions, if not tens or hundreds of millions, bringing back woolly mammoths would not only be a tremendous waste of money, but an act of abuse towards the animal.
According to The Washington Post, startup company Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences announced a plan in mid-September 2021 to create a “cold-resistant elephant with all of the core biological traits of the woolly mammoth”. It has been theorized that woolly mammoths could help fight climate change if released into their original range in Siberia and northern North America by scraping away snow to allow the ground to be frozen instead of insulated, and spread grasses in their droppings.
Colossal Laboratories is supported by Harvard genetics professor George Church and would use CRISPR-Cas9 to take sections of DNA recovered from frozen mammoth bodies and splice it into the DNA of Asian elephants, the closest living relative to the mammoths. CRISPR-Cas9 takes specific sections of DNA strands and isolates them so they can be inserted into other DNA strands.
With the highest estimates of wild Asian elephant populations being at 40,000, this pipe dream is not only a waste of time and money, but a danger to the entire species. Instead of focusing on bringing back a species that humans might have helped drive to extinction thousands of years ago, those resources should be spent protecting the elephants that are still alive today.
Similarly, these mammoths would not survive a year in the wild. Poachers everywhere would make a beeline for the tundra to kill a mammoth. Can you imagine the value put on a mammoth steak? On a tusk? This is hubris at its finest and might just be an excuse to launder some money or eat some elephant meat.
Elephants are intelligent animals as well. These mammoths would be the first of their kind back and would be thrust into a life of emotional neglect with no family members like them, no instincts and no idea how to survive. Colossal Laboratories plans to use an artificial womb to grow the baby instead of a surrogate mother. Where do they draw the line with experimentation on intelligent life? Will geneticists attempt to bring back Australopithecus, a human ancestor from three million years ago? What about Neanderthals from just a few thousand years ago?
In bioethics, lines are easily blurred, and it is the duty of those not involved in the research to critique. Money and titles like “Harvard professor” win over many, but bringing back “mammoths” that are just Asian elephants wearing fur coats is a monumental waste of time and money that should be used for better purposes.
Instead of spending millions on a pointless dream, the funds should be spent on projects directly impacting climate change like installing wind turbines or helping fight desertification.
Seeing a mammoth in person would be incredible, especially as someone with a great interest in natural history, but this research is just another rich white man with a god complex.
Image from Flickr
