Restoring Nature—Part 2

Another disturbing notion offered by some technologists, is to repair the damage we've done by bringing back some species that have become extinct, in order to correct the imbalance we've imposed on nature. Many people understand that human culture has caused countless species to disappear—from large predators like giant bears and lions, to large herbivores like mammoths, to tiny creatures like miniature rainforest frogs. Each critter that becomes extinct upsets the balance of the natural system, and causes it to degrade.

Now that our knowledge of genetics appears to have advanced to the point that we can recreate and clone extinct species, some technologists are trumpeting this approach to bringing back the natural balance that once prevailed in nature. It has the appeal of solving a big problem through biological accomplishments.

OK, maybe it might be possible to recreate a frozen mammoth's genome and induce a female elephant to give birth to a revived mammoth. That's a pretty neat trick, but is it any way to try to correct for our damage? Even if a herd of mammoths could be created (imagine the cost!), it's doubtful that they could flourish on today's changed planet. It's the height of arrogance to think that this approach would take us back to a healthier world.

The disturbing thing about these technological fix-it ideas, as I wrote earlier, is that it would put us in a place where we're trying to play God... but we'd be in way over our heads. It'd be like turning over the management of modern societies to a group of three-year-olds. We comprehend far less than we think we do about the workings of nature.

Our tweaking of the environment would likely cause huge ramifications about which we could never guess. When DDT was regarded as a miracle insecticide that would save agriculture from insects and people from malaria, no one had a clue that it would cause the shells of birds' eggs to weaken to the point that the eggs collapsed before the embryonic bird had developed. We nearly caused many large bird species—like bald eagles and some hawks—to become extinct. And they represent far more usefulness to the environment than simply keeping an admired species from going extinct.

Why do we insist in rushing forward, heedless to the mess we're causing? Why don't we have the courage and the morals to change our ways? Is there some basic flaw in the human psyche that relentlessly drives us ever more deeply into calamity? I'd like to believe that maybe some day we'll wake up and change our ways, but I wonder how much more impoverished our world will become, before we wise up.