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What’s “safety” here? I don’t intend the question to be trolling. What’s the risk of bringing back a wooly mammoth? Sure it could die of a weird disease bc
by huitzitziltzin 2y ago
What’s “safety” here? I don’t intend the question to be trolling. What’s the risk of bringing back a wooly mammoth?
Sure it could die of a weird disease bc we didn’t have the full genetic code. And yeah I’m equally unconvinced from the article that we actually can do this, but it’s unclear to me what the risks are if we can and do?
Scenario: Bring back one to one hundred wooly mammoths and… X worst case scenario happens. What’s X in your view for the wooly mammoth? I can’t think of any that seem actually bad but maybe my creativity is lacking?
- troad 2y ago> What’s the risk of bringing back a wooly mammoth? I imagine a big one is the needless and possibly intense pain and suffering for the surrogate mother elephant, and her experimentally-GMO'd calf. Elephants are highly social and by all accounts quite empathetic animals. Also the opportunity cost - elephant populations are highly endangered and every pregnancy cycle used up for this research is one less actual living elephant.
- doodaddy 2y agoAs a few others have pointed out, animal welfare is one. As you point out, disease is annother. And another is the instabilities that can arise by introducing a new species to an ecosystem. Do we really have an understanding of where the mammoth fit into the food chain? How it fit into its environment? I’d expect the answer is a resounding “no” because we don’t even fully understand this dynamic for plants and animals that live today.