Let us not try to bring back Woolly Mammoth

Touted as wonder materials, they are now globally regulated, threatening to overwhelm life in our rivers and oceans.

The big news is that scientists will soon de-extinct the Woolly Mammoth. It may be released in icy Siberia, living in its ancestral home 6000 to 10,000 years ago. Two companies are at it. One is reconstructing the mammoth’s DNA by cloning the Asian elephant, its closest relative. The other has harvested enough genetic material from the remains of a Mammoth, Buttercup, to create an embryo. Proponents of the idea point out that these creatures of de-extinction will help fight the melting of the permafrost.

It may be released in icy Siberia, living in its ancestral home 6000 to 10,000 years ago. (AFP)

I believe science should be for more sure-shot, urgent, environmental outcomes. Such as reducing the number of species we are losing in the ongoing 6th extinction. And if climate change is the reason we’re being given for such experiments, why not focus on crises like clean energy, keeping fresh water in circulation and sustainable food?

There’s something else: the cost of letting new technologies into our lives without adequate safeguards. What will these giants really do? How do we know they are not a Frankenstein? Plastics are a gentle analogy. Touted as wonder materials, they are now globally regulated, threatening to overwhelm life in our rivers and oceans. Learning from this, let’s not introduce anything new without stringent regulation. Just because science can get something done, doesn’t mean it should. Science offers us all kinds of adventures. Let’s stay focused on that does no harm. Let’s also use science for our immediate, identified environmental crises.

The author is founder and director, Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group