Woolly mice and "dire wolves" are a distraction from attacks on endangered species, experts caution

[marmar]

Woolly mice and "dire wolves" are a distraction from attacks on endangered species, experts caution
"De-extinction" takes center stage as environmentalists express dismay over erosion of the Endangered Species Act

By Carlyn Zwarenstein
Published May 15, 2025 12:00PM (EDT)


(Salon) On April 7, Colossal Biosciences, a biotech company founded in Dallas in 2021 with the goal of “de-extincting” animals, announced it had brought back the dire wolf, a creature last seen in these parts around 10,000 years ago. That same day, the U.S. Department of the Interior sent a proposal to the White House to weaken the Endangered Species Act by removing a single, vital word – “harm” – from the definition of what you can’t do to an endangered species.

And two days later, during a livestreamed town hall on Wednesday, April 9, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, told department employees, now concerned about threatened weakening of the ESA, to just “pick your favorite species and call up Colossal,” explicitly tying the company’s latest success to a change that employees and other conservation experts fear would make it easier for companies or governments to degrade or destroy habitats.

....(snip)....

Colossal Biosciences has been widely criticized for its somewhat huckster-ish style and the ease with which it’s captured the attention of people like Burgum and a prominent investors, a criticism that may reveal a touch of envy – as well as for making claims that inflate the actual science involved to the point it’s easy to pop. But the company is more than a pretty gimmick.

....(snip)....

Still, if it wants to be taken seriously when it says that conservation is as important an aspect of its work as de-extinction, the highly politicized times we live in mean that Colossal, and Lamm as its figurehead, are going to have to decide which side they’re on. This is something they have tried ardently to avoid. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/05/15/woolly-mice-and-dire-wolves-are-a-distraction-from-on-endangered-species-experts-caution/

[PufPuf23]

1. Unfortunately, the ESA is most palatable and noticed by the public when focused on apex, cute or

unusual species when problem to be addressed is endangered ecosystems.

Humanity has way too big a footprint on the natural world and this will bite the human species.

[hatrack]

2. It's Genewashing, nothing more . . .

"Oh, don't worry, we'll just resurrect extinct species with our Tecknologeeeee!!!"