‘De-extincting’ the woolly mammoth to fight global warming
Researchers have long dreamt of bringing back the woolly mammoth from cells found frozen in carcasses in Siberia and Alaska. They had planned to obtain and implant mammoth DNA into the denucleated egg of a female Asian elephant, which is most similar to the woolly mammoth. (But it would be nigh-impossible to obtain intact mammoth nuclear DNA—see creation.com/mammoth-clones.)
The idea has not died, but this time researchers, led by renowned geneticist Dr George Church, are planning on using CRISPR gene-editing technology to isolate and then insert genes for mammoth-like characteristics into an elephant embryo, then implant it into an Asian elephant. Although having some similarities, it would not strictly be a woolly mammoth.
After producing these ‘woolly mammoths’, the long-range plan is to place them back into the Arctic tundra to fight global warming. The scientists speculate that the mammoth will bring back the Ice Age steppe grassland that absorbs less sunlight than trees. The resulting cooler temperatures would then hold pools of tundra greenhouse gases in ice for longer.
However, the plan is misguided in several ways. First, the Ice Age grassland was caused by a much different climate than today—due to the never-to-be-repeated Flood of Noah’s day. Second, it is doubtful woolly mammoths could even live in Siberia today with its fierce winters and massive bogs, let alone maintain a steppe grassland. And it is unlikely that the reflectivity for sunlight would change because tundra has very few trees today.
- DeFrancesco, L., Church to de-extinct woolly mammoths, Nature Biotechnology 39:1171, 2021.
- Oard, M., Frozen in Time: Woolly Mammoths, the Ice Age and the biblical key to their secrets, Master Books, 2004; creation.com/frozen-time.
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