1. Choose a topic
Is it possible and ethical to revive species?
2. Consider and clarify your topic
I chose the question of “is it possible to revive extinct species?” With climate change beginning to shadow over our current level of biodiversity, it’s become clear to some scientists that the only way to fix the problem is to bring back species that were hunted to extinction by humans, like wooly mammoths, or one of their predators, dire wolves. But this also brings up a lot of ethical questions; we’re so fixated on the idea of doing this that we haven’t stopped to consider “should we?” Another thing to consider is that the concept of a species is VERY human in terms of categorization, and I don’t think it’s fair to box organisms in these categories just to try and “de-extinct” imaginary categories we deem more important to an ecosystem. Even if we do “de-extinct” something liek the dire wolves, it isn’t… *really* that species. De-extincting species by major companies feels like a ploy to get more funding for science, which is just another lovely side effect of our capitalist society. It’s really depressing to watch biologists overcomplicate solutions to climate change when the real solution that feels more viable and proximal is to change the fact that big companies aren’t curbing their emissions. Ten Things:
DNA, dire wolves, wooly mammoths, dodo birds, great auks, pipettes, plastic waste, passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet, elephant bird