I'm not a paleontologist or anything, but it seems rather cruel to bring back an ice age creature, well adapted to frigid temperatures, into a world we've basically been heating since their disappearence. Especially considering climate change is thought to be one of the reasons for their extinction in the first place.
When Tim Ferriss interviewed Stewart Brand on this [1], it sounded like the intention was to introduce them to the far north which is both closer to their natural habitat, and far away from people. Sounds in-line with the article here.
Relevant snippet from Brand:
> Eventually, the rest of that story is that woolly mammoths could be part of the revival of what used to be called the Mammoth Steppe, which is the grasslands of the far north, which was once the largest biome on Earth … what [Mammoths] are good at is knocking down trees. Knocking down trees is good because it turns a closed-canopy forest into mosaic, and a mosaic is a much richer ecological environment for all kinds of species.
Geologically speaking the Earth is on the tail end of an ice age and has been way hotter than it has been today. I'm sure a mammoth would thrive in places like Alaska and Canada.
I bumped into Ben Lamm by coincidence at a business dinner (he was having dinner at the next table at a really small place and instead him and his party just joined us as a big group) and he was talking about Collossal. The weird thing is he wants bring back multiple extinct species and to recoup the investment by essentially running zoo exhibits. So you would pay to go see the wooly mammoth or whatever. I love that this exists and would love them to succeed but the plan seems pretty out there.
I think you're right. When push comes to shove size has consequences. Specifically, the bigger the animal, the bigger the torque on every movement. This means bigger animals move slower (more accurately: "can't change speed"). In the case of Woolly Mammoths and dinosaurs ... a lot slower. Their turning radius, certainly at speed, will be something like that of a truck.
This means that whilst outrunning a T-Rex might be difficult, it should work like a bull: you have zero chance when running away from a bull that's trying to attack you. So don't. However, if you just avoid the bull by going sideways (walking speed is more than enough, there is no real need or the showy stuff toreadors perform at bull fights) and let it attack you until it tires (and collapses), at which point you calmly walk over and kill it with a pointy stick ... yes it takes some practice but it's definitely going to be how such fights would go in practice.
Worse: it's not like humans are the only animals that are capable of figuring this out.
>“Our goal is in the successful de-extinction of inter-breedable herds of mammoths that we can leverage in the rewilding of the Arctic. And then we want to leverage those technologies for what we’re calling thoughtful, disruptive conservation,” Lamm told CNBC.
What ecological benefits would de-extincting mammoths and re-introducing them to the Arctic bring? Genuinely curious.
Given our previous fairly mixed results with introducing foreign species into new habitats where they can flourish, this sounds like it'd most likely be pretty bad for the current ecosystems there.
While I generally agree, as far as I’m not mistaken they are not foreign to these regions at all - on the grand scheme of things they just disappeared from there very recently
Maybe, though I doubt it would have had long enough time to alter too much - so I don’t think it would be anything similar to introducing an invasive species.
I'm not sure that the Arctic needs "rewilding", it is still a wild environment. What's definitely needed is protecting it.
Mammoths were adapted to the ice age while we are in a climate warming crisis... apparently they lived in steppes called "mammoth steps" that are very rare today [1]. So realistically this would just be a tourist attraction a la Jurassic Park.
> If these revived woolly mammoths eventually repopulate the Arctic, they would take down small trees and help repopulate the grasses they thrive on, Church said. Those grasses reflect sunlight better than the dark trunks of the conifer trees that live there. In addition, the woolly mammoths tamp down the snow, making it less insulating.
Those grasses would cool the ecosystem, in turn reducing the release of trapped methane gas from melting permafrost, a major contributor to global warming.
Climate != weather. Warmer global temperatures don't mean that it will be warm everywhere. It's hardly an out there idea to suggest that climate change could likely result in a new ice age (see: The Day After Tomorrow).
29 comments
[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 71.9 ms ] threadRelevant snippet from Brand:
> Eventually, the rest of that story is that woolly mammoths could be part of the revival of what used to be called the Mammoth Steppe, which is the grasslands of the far north, which was once the largest biome on Earth … what [Mammoths] are good at is knocking down trees. Knocking down trees is good because it turns a closed-canopy forest into mosaic, and a mosaic is a much richer ecological environment for all kinds of species.
1. https://tim.blog/2018/02/03/the-tim-ferriss-show-transcripts...
looks at extant life pointedly
Sure, some life finds a way, but 99.99% of it doesn't.
This is — famously — almost completely untrue.
This means that whilst outrunning a T-Rex might be difficult, it should work like a bull: you have zero chance when running away from a bull that's trying to attack you. So don't. However, if you just avoid the bull by going sideways (walking speed is more than enough, there is no real need or the showy stuff toreadors perform at bull fights) and let it attack you until it tires (and collapses), at which point you calmly walk over and kill it with a pointy stick ... yes it takes some practice but it's definitely going to be how such fights would go in practice.
Worse: it's not like humans are the only animals that are capable of figuring this out.
What ecological benefits would de-extincting mammoths and re-introducing them to the Arctic bring? Genuinely curious.
Mammoths were adapted to the ice age while we are in a climate warming crisis... apparently they lived in steppes called "mammoth steps" that are very rare today [1]. So realistically this would just be a tourist attraction a la Jurassic Park.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_steppe
Those grasses would cool the ecosystem, in turn reducing the release of trapped methane gas from melting permafrost, a major contributor to global warming.