From the pioneering artwork of prehistoric animals by Charles R. Knight to the fascinating world presented by Michael Crichton in Jurassic Park, many people have become obsessed with the idea of bringing extinct species back to life. But, much like Frankenstein, this has only resided in the realm of science fiction. However, CRISPR may be the key to turning this into science reality. Though we won’t have any theme parks with living dinosaurs anytime soon, recently extinct animals could potentially be brought back. The demand for bringing back extinct species couldn’t be higher. With nearly 150 species going a day, some of which we haven’t even discovered yet, the idea of bringing them back from the brink seems noble.
However, I would argue that it will be used to disregard what is causing these species to go extinct.If we were to bring every species that we’ve lost in the last few years, it wouldn’t change the conditions that have led to their extinction. For the most part, the causes of the most recent extinctions are due to human activities, be it hunting, pollution, climate change, deforestation, etc… These causes for extinctions are still happening today and are still causing extinctions each day. The issues haven’t been resolved. Because of this, there is no reason to believe that these creatures would survive without human intervention, which is the same problem that today’s endangered species face. This is why we are not ready to bring them back. With the condition that the Earth is in, they will most likely just go extinct again.
If we want to bring species back, we need to stop making them go extinct, and in order to do that, we need to solve the climate crisis and poaching. So, how far should we go to bring back lost species? As the world stands now, we shouldn’t go anywhere with it. To do so would certainly be an astounding achievement in science, but the planet is in no state to have them roaming the Earth again because of us. If we want to bring back species from the brink, we need to first stop pushing them there.
