2 thoughts on “The big idea: should we bring extinct creatures back to life?”
This, in a way, is another distraction from preserving/repairing what we currently have. There is a more economical approach to deal with AGW than using Planet B, and there are more practical and economical ways to enhance biodiversity than bringing back now-extinct apex herbivores. While Leopold’s “. . . first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces,” applies, one should also take care when tinkering not to add additional pieces without also ensuring their function is understood and their supporting pieces are also added. There is a reason we refer to systems, i.e., ecosystem, and not ecothing.
Exposing the Big Game 
This, in a way, is another distraction from preserving/repairing what we currently have. There is a more economical approach to deal with AGW than using Planet B, and there are more practical and economical ways to enhance biodiversity than bringing back now-extinct apex herbivores. While Leopold’s “. . . first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces,” applies, one should also take care when tinkering not to add additional pieces without also ensuring their function is understood and their supporting pieces are also added. There is a reason we refer to systems, i.e., ecosystem, and not ecothing.
^^True. But where we have driven animals recently to extinction, I think that we should try to fix what we have done.
There are animals hovering on the brink right now, and I think we should prepare for it – while doing all we can to prevent it.
But we are showing no signs of stopping our running roughshod over the planet, which is very sad.