UPSC Relevance
- GS-3: Environment – Biodiversity Protection, Climate Change
- GS-4: Ethics – Scientific Integrity, Resource Prioritization
Key Points
Colossal Biosciences’ De-extinction Initiative
- A U.S. company is working to revive extinct species like the woolly mammoth and dire wolf using genome editing and cloning.
- The goal is to restore ecosystems and address climate change, such as by enhancing grasslands to absorb methane.
Scientific Critiques and Credibility Issues
- Efforts on the dire wolf involve editing only 20 genes, resulting in what critics call a “peculiar gray wolf” lacking peer-reviewed validation.
- Many argue these projects distract from pressing conservation needs for living species.
Ethical and Resource Concerns
- Such initiatives lack ecological oversight and risk being exploited for publicity or political agendas.
- Allocating millions to species revival while habitat loss drives biodiversity decline is viewed as a misallocation of resources.
Analysis and Path Forward
- Conservation efforts should prioritize protecting existing species and ecosystems over speculative resurrection projects.
- Robust ethical guidelines are needed to govern gene-editing and biotechnology in conservation.