BI215-A: Principles of Genetics

I have seen articles about cloning woolly mammoths on sites like twitter and others, but I never clicked on them to read them because I did not take it seriously. I thought that the idea of cloning a giant animal from ages past was just an excuse for really smart people to live out their childhood fantasies. After actually doing some research on the subject, I realize there is much more nuance to the subject and I wish I read and knew about this earlier.

A geneticist named George Church of Harvard Medical School is working not to clone woolly mammoths, but to splice its DNA with that of the asian elephant to create a hybrid. The asian elephant shares 99% of its DNA with the mammoth, which is why the likelihood of success pretty high. In South Korea, Hwang Woo-suk is trying to clone the mammoth. He has had success with dogs, cows, and pigs, so the next logical step is the Woolly Mammoth.

Before research, I never would have thought that woolly mammoths could help with climate change. But as it turns out, they would dig up snow to reach the grass in Siberia, exposing the ground to the cold air which in turn would keep the layer of permafrost frozen. Trapped within the permafrost is enough carbon to more than double the amount of carbon already in the atmosphere. Keeping the permafrost frozen is of utmost importance. Bringing back the woolly mammoth and crossing with the asian elephant can also save the asian elephant from extinction because the hybrids would be more resistant to the cold and could survive in Siberia. My question is, would this actually be saving the species or just creating a new one while the original dies out?

Some scientists are against, or are at least wary about, the idea of bringing back the woolly mammoth. Conservationists know all too well what even a small change in environment can do to affect an entire ecosystem. Just the invasion or extinction of a plant can cause a ripple effect that could lead to the death of other species. We cannot know the extent of the changes of adding a 4-6 ton mammal to an environment. On top of that, the melting of the permafrost is only an issue because the populations of other herbivores already living in Siberia are decreasing dramatically. I fail to see how bringing back an ancient giant would be more effective and efficient than conserving and assisting the proliferation of species that exist now. It is our fault that these animals are decreasing in population, anyway. In my opinion, if we are someday able to clone animals that have gone extinct, people would lose even more motivation to conserve the species that are dying now. But who knows, maybe by that point, the human race will have its act together.