[U] So... Weren't These Guys... Paying Attention, When "Jurassic Park" Debuted?!

Okay, look -- I am generally an ardent proponent of advancing bio-science. And genetic bio-science.

But the claim here -- that we will help solve the Earth's greenhouse gas emission problems -- by bringing a genetically-modified Woolly Mammoth back to life, after 15,000 years of extinction -- even if essentially quarantined (in remote Siberia) -- yet, and perhaps -- in vast herds. . . seems fanciful, at best. [And dangerous, at worst.]

More directly, the notion of making a mammal that is a cross between a nearly extinct Asian elephant, and the fully-extinct mammoth line. . . seems to open a Pandora's Box of likely unintended biological consequences, per this morning's edition of The Guardian UK:

. . .Ten thousand years after woolly mammoths vanished from the face of the Earth, scientists are embarking on an ambitious project to bring the beasts back to the Arctic tundra.

The prospect of recreating mammoths and returning them to the wild has been discussed – seriously at times – for more than a decade, but on Monday researchers announced fresh funding they believe could make their dream a reality.

The boost comes in the form of $15m (£11m) raised by the bioscience and genetics company Colossal, co-founded by Ben Lamm, a tech and software entrepreneur, and George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School who has pioneered new approaches to gene editing. . . .

Other researchers are deeply skeptical that Colossal will pull off such a feat. And if Colossal does manage to produce baby mammoth-like elephants, the company will face serious ethical questions. Is it humane to produce an animal whose biology we know so little about? Who gets to decide whether they can be set loose, potentially to change the ecosystems of tundras in profound ways?. . . .

Russian ecologists have imported bison and other living species to a preserve in Siberia they’ve dubbed Pleistocene Park, in the hopes of turning the tundra back to grassland. Dr. Church argued that resurrected woolly mammoths would be able to do this more efficiently. The restored grassland would keep the soil from melting and eroding, he argued, and might even lock away heat-trapping carbon dioxide. . . .

This has. . . a clearly-flashing warning sign on it: "Ecological Disaster Ahead" -- it is in fact. . . written all over it. And if not a disaster -- it is at best, a throwing away, of the $15 million raised so far.

[Update: In an ironic twist, one of the investors in this project was the money behind the latest -- and least entertaining -- installment of the Jurassic Park franchises -- called Jurassic World. Ugh.] But I'll watch from the sidelines. . . grinning -- ever grinning.

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