On Monday, a group of scientists and entrepreneurs announced the formation of a new business with the goal of genetically resurrecting the woolly mammoth from extinction.
In the company’s vision, hundreds of these majestic animals will be reintroduced to the Siberian tundra, thousands of years after they were exterminated.
The reason is that the melting of northern permafrost, which will result in a huge release of greenhouse gases that have been securely trapped in the ice, is one of the most serious dangers to the planet. When the herds of woolly mammoths and other creatures died out, the region became covered with a forest, which helps to keep the soil warmer in the winter months. Assuming that a revived population of mammoths is allowed to go free in the Arctic, Church is wagering that they will chew and trample down the shrubbery and trees, exposing the soil to subzero temperatures and enabling the tundra’s natural meadows to reappear. Carbon would be successfully sequestered in that environment by the big animals, rather than being released back into the atmosphere as pollution.
Colossal claims that in the process of resurrecting the mammoth, it will also create technology that will benefit humans and the environment in a variety of other ways as well. “We’ve discovered a method to harness CRISPR’s potential for the purpose of preventing species extinction,” claims the team “According to the Church. “Gene editing, on the other hand, has the potential to have a profound effect on all areas of life, from animal extinction and ecological restoration to illness prevention and the development of more durable human bodies.”
However, despite the fact that Church had been doing this study for years, it wasn’t until the arrival of a big-thinking Texan serial entrepreneur called Ben Lamm that anybody decided to put it into reality.
