Imagine, a world where mammoths could roam the earth and passenger pigeons could be sitting on your window sill. This may seem just like a figment of imagination but this could be our reality. Science has advanced so far that we can take steps towards de-extinction which will bring back these animals. Even though this may sound amazing bring back extinct species is bad and will not do our world good. Extinct species will destroy balance in the environment, waste money that could be used to save other threatened species, and create many variables in our world. Even though this may be something that we as people shouldn't do the best way to show you why is by explaining how this would even happen. De- extinction is the idea of using process such as genome editing, cloning, and backwards breeding. In this essay we will talk about these process and of course the biggest question of all, why we should not bring back extinct species.
First before we get into the debate lets explore how this is even possible. I assure you that this is not just a piece of science fiction but actual processes that are in the works as we speak. First off, genome editing. As stated in the QUEST article, Reawakening Extinct Species in Paragraphs 15 and 16; Using DNA extracted from passenger pigeon specimens stored in facilities like Canada’s Royal Ontario Museum, Novak and Shapiro are putting together as much of the passenger pigeon’s genome as possible.” and “ Once researchers have identified these genes and built them in the lab using chemical compounds, they’ll insert them into the band-tailed pigeon’s genome using new genome-editing technology.” As you can tell the basic idea of genome editing is you take the closest relative of the extinct species and take genomes from the old DNA and combine it with the closest relatives DNA to try and piece together a somewhat perfect replica of the old animal.
Then next we have cloning. As stated in the QUEST Article Reawakening Extinct Species in Paragraph 6 "To clone the bucardo, the researchers defrosted cells they had obtained from Celia’s skin samples. Using technology developed to clone Dolly the sheep in 1996, they transferred the nucleus from Celia’s cells into cells from domestic goats whose nucleus had been removed (a cell’s nucleus contains its genetic material, in the form of chromosomes). They then stimulated the cells with a jolt of electricity and waited to see which ones grew into embryos. They transferred 154 embryos into surrogate mothers, a cross between domestic and wild goats. A bucardo kid was born in 2003, but died after a few minutes from a lung deformity." Basically you switch the nucleus of the extinct species with the nucleus of the closest relative. Get the egg fertilized and let the baby be born. Since the nucleus is the instructions to create the organism if you give something the instructions to be like a certain thing it will. Then finally backwards breeding. Backwards breeding is when you take the two closest relatives to the extinct animal and breed them together to try and get the traits of the extinct animal in the baby.
Now that you know how this is even possible let me explain why this is NOT good. First off we have thousands and thousands of endangered species on our planet. As said in the New York Times, paragraph 6, We might soon resurrect extinct species. Is it worth the cost?, “If you have the millions of dollars it would take to resurrect a species and choose to do that, you are making an ethical decision to bring one species back and let several others go extinct,” Dr. Bennett said. “It would be one step forward, and three to eight steps back.”. As Dr. Bennett said it is a moral decision. Our environment is already unstable with all the animals dying and with their habitats being destroyed. We need to make sure our world is stable and ready to add more animals in. Until then unless we need these animals an extreme extreme amount to help us reach that goal then we need to manage what is alive now.
Next big problem with bringing back extinct species is what will their place be in the ecosystem. For example not saying this is what is going to happen but we bring back the t rex. Well the t rex was built to fight and defend itself from other dinosaurs. Obviously nothing that exist now is up to par in strength or size with any of our old dinosaurs. This would make the t rex the top of the food chain. It would probably end up making more species extinct by eating their entire population then saving them. As said in the SENCER article, paragraph 5, Should we bring back extinct species?, “Lastly, we don’t know the environmental impacts of bringing back extinct species. Would they be invasive? If there weren’t predators for this species, it could become overpopulated. Alternatively, it could become a “new” predator and wipe out other species." We truly have no clue what these animals will do especially since for the older ones most of us weren't alive to see them in action. Why bring something back that would slowly destroy our wildlife?
Then finally I think we all must admit that we have hurt our planet. We cut down its forest, pollute its air, hunt its wildlife. So one of the biggest question de extinction makes people as is perfectly presented by the SENCER article in Paragraph 1 of Should we bring back extinct species?, “Is it worth the time and the money to bring extinct species back? Is it our moral obligation to bring back extinct species that have died off as a result of human activities like deforestation? What would be the implications?” My thoughts on this question is yes we have destroyed a lot of this beautiful planet but instead of fixing our mistakes little by little we need to look at the bigger picture. If we want to really help our environment and somewhat repay what we have taken we should reduce what we are still currently doing such as cutting down forests, and hunting species to extinction. Once we stop all those things the real problem then maybe we consider taking it a step further and look into extinct species.
In conclusion, no we do not need to bring back extinct species. They will not be a big enough help that we should put so much time, money, effort and risk into bringing them back. As we covered of course it is possible. A lot of time and effort has already been put into making this research possible, but it isn't what the world needs right now. That research don't have to go to waste. We can use it to improve our medical. For example if your family has a high risk of heart failure then maybe you do a genome edit and take that out of your families DNA pool. As for cloning we could try one that tech is successful to use it in child birthing. You could have someone else maybe carry your baby for you with such technology. Extinct species may one day roam this earth but they should not any time soon.
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