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Thursday, August 18, 2005
Back to the Future, Ice Age Style
From National Geographic News:
A team of U.S. biologists and conservationists is proposing a plan that's equal parts Jurassic Park and Jumanji.
Their goal is to restore giant wild mammals to North America, like those that roamed the continent during the Ice Age—mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and the extinct American cheetah, among others.
Since those animals have long been extinct, the scientists propose repopulating the U.S. with the creatures' closest living relatives—such as lions, cheetahs, elephants, and camels.
The story, which features an interview with the lead author of the Nature article that proposes "rewilding," briefly mentions the possible effects on the American landscape and the question of whether or not such a proposal could be considered ecological tampering:
We argue that our proposal is based on a couple of facts that are very clear. One is that now the Earth is nowhere pristine. Our economics, our politics, our technology pervade every ecosystem.
So we argue that even though the obstacles and risks are substantial, we no longer accept a hands-off approach to wilderness preservation. By default or by design, we're going to basically decide what kind of world we want to live in.
I'll have to check out the full proposal in Nature before I can present an informed opinion from an anthropological perspective, but right off the bat I can see several potential problems the team might encounter in terms of popular opinion and ethics.
Posted by Will at August 18, 2005 04:40 PM in In the News