Should we bring back extinct species? Weekly Blog- 12/10/17
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Summary: De-extinction in the process of "resurrecting" species that have previously died off through cloning, selective breeding, and DNA splicing. Scientists are working to rack in an immense amount of money to perform de-extinction on animals like the woolly mammoth. They claim the woolly mammoth would actually be helping the tundra, due to the fact that ice is melting and the soil contains carbon which would release if more ice melts. The woolly mammoth would “punch down the snow in the winter time allowing cold air to come in and in the summertime they would knock down trees which are very absorbent and release the grasses,” said Steph Yin in We Might Soon Resurrect Extinct Species. Is It Worth the Cost?. Along with the wooly mammoth, many scientists are considering the resurrection of the passenger pigeon. This particular pigeon allowed regeneration in certain forests by fracturing trees branches and fertilizing the soil through their waste. According to Gabriela Quiros in Reawakening Extinct Species, this role is specific to the passenger pigeon which poses a valid reason to resurrect them. "That job is gone... There's nothing left to serve that purpose." (10:26)
S&EP-Communicating Information:
Using the new platform of KQED Learn, I was able to share and communicate all the information and opinions I had gathered to pose thought provoking questions to my classmates. For instance, I posted, "I definitely agree this article had a very good balance of both pros and cons, but something that stood out to me that this is all theoretical......." Since at this very point in time I didn't have a clear focus of whether I supported de-extinction or not I asked , "Do you think that it is worth risking our current environment just so we can sleep better at night knowing that if we make a mistake we can just undo it?" The people who responded used evidence to back up their points of view and allowed me to formulate my own opinion that the science behind de-extinction is groundbreaking, but with environmental conditions depleeting we should focus that money towards preserving species that are still alive. Overall, the KQED Learn platform was a great way to communicate with one another.
XCC-Cause and Effect:
Throughtout my research on de-extinction I noticed many cause and effect relationships. Species that are de-extinct have the complete possibility of being the top predator and wiping out other species, or they could overpopulate because other species don’t have the system to consume it. As well as that, if scientists can de-extinct species humans will care less and less about the environment and continue to destroy it because if an animal dies we can just “bring it back.” “If we develop a way to bring back extinct species, people may not be as worried because even if a species dies out, we could always bring them back. However, if a species that went extinct due to habitat destruction was revived, there wouldn’t be natural habitat in which they could live.” Either way it would be a waste of money that could have been spent on protecting species that are currently in danger. All in all, bring back extinct species could have many effects on the environment that aren't necessarily positive.
Multiplier: This week I was a mutant, to be more specific a learner because I tried to learn as much as I could on this entirely new topic (de-extinction).
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| https://ww2.kqed.org/education/2017/04/12/should-we-bring-back-extinct-species/ |
Summary: De-extinction in the process of "resurrecting" species that have previously died off through cloning, selective breeding, and DNA splicing. Scientists are working to rack in an immense amount of money to perform de-extinction on animals like the woolly mammoth. They claim the woolly mammoth would actually be helping the tundra, due to the fact that ice is melting and the soil contains carbon which would release if more ice melts. The woolly mammoth would “punch down the snow in the winter time allowing cold air to come in and in the summertime they would knock down trees which are very absorbent and release the grasses,” said Steph Yin in We Might Soon Resurrect Extinct Species. Is It Worth the Cost?. Along with the wooly mammoth, many scientists are considering the resurrection of the passenger pigeon. This particular pigeon allowed regeneration in certain forests by fracturing trees branches and fertilizing the soil through their waste. According to Gabriela Quiros in Reawakening Extinct Species, this role is specific to the passenger pigeon which poses a valid reason to resurrect them. "That job is gone... There's nothing left to serve that purpose." (10:26)
S&EP-Communicating Information:
Using the new platform of KQED Learn, I was able to share and communicate all the information and opinions I had gathered to pose thought provoking questions to my classmates. For instance, I posted, "I definitely agree this article had a very good balance of both pros and cons, but something that stood out to me that this is all theoretical......." Since at this very point in time I didn't have a clear focus of whether I supported de-extinction or not I asked , "Do you think that it is worth risking our current environment just so we can sleep better at night knowing that if we make a mistake we can just undo it?" The people who responded used evidence to back up their points of view and allowed me to formulate my own opinion that the science behind de-extinction is groundbreaking, but with environmental conditions depleeting we should focus that money towards preserving species that are still alive. Overall, the KQED Learn platform was a great way to communicate with one another.
XCC-Cause and Effect:
Throughtout my research on de-extinction I noticed many cause and effect relationships. Species that are de-extinct have the complete possibility of being the top predator and wiping out other species, or they could overpopulate because other species don’t have the system to consume it. As well as that, if scientists can de-extinct species humans will care less and less about the environment and continue to destroy it because if an animal dies we can just “bring it back.” “If we develop a way to bring back extinct species, people may not be as worried because even if a species dies out, we could always bring them back. However, if a species that went extinct due to habitat destruction was revived, there wouldn’t be natural habitat in which they could live.” Either way it would be a waste of money that could have been spent on protecting species that are currently in danger. All in all, bring back extinct species could have many effects on the environment that aren't necessarily positive.
Multiplier: This week I was a mutant, to be more specific a learner because I tried to learn as much as I could on this entirely new topic (de-extinction).
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