selfish and blind

michael hofreiter of the max planck institute for evolutionary anthropology in germany was not involved in the recent study of the woolly mammoth's decoded genome, but he seems to possess the most intelligence regarding the matter.
while other scientists are busying themselves planning the artificial insemination of elephants with mammoth dna and wetting themselves at the possibility of an ice age themed exhibit worthy of michael crichton, hofreiter is a welcome voice of reason:
"the tons of money you would need to resurrect a mammoth would probably be better spend saving endangered species."
yes! thank you!
if there were more scientists like this guy, the world would be a much better place. I know, that's a typical statement but hear me out. well you're still reading this so I assume you are willing and able.
a scientist who was involved in this study was quoted talking about making the leap to cloning humans and that his new clone basketball team would be unbeatable. let's ignore the possibly stereotypical undertones and focus on his idea as a whole. bringing woolly mammoths back into our global ecosystem is a terrible idea, both for humans and mammoths, not to mention the almost infinite number of other species on our planet. yes, we find new species every month. so stop dredging the ocean floor for appetizers, because you're killing animals before we can ever discover them. earth cannot support mammoths because the climate they need does not exist anymore. that is why they went extinct. oh, we'll just replicate the environment in a controlled area, you say? you read how well that worked out in jurassic park. or saw how well it worked out in speilberg's film adaptation. or both, if you find dinosaurs as fascinating as i do. sidebar: many of the principal dinosaurs featured in the crichton novel were not alive during the jurassic period, but i guess 'cretaceous park' doesn't have the same ring to it. i recall reading an entire book about why the major ideas of jurassic park would not work at all, and i'm actually very happy about that. on a side note, the 'executive bathroom' in the most recent family guy episode was one of the funniest parodies i've ever seen.
tangent alert! retreat! retreat! run away!
ah yes, the funny scientist. i applaud his attempt at humor, but I don't think his backers are paying him to joke around. you don't buy microsoft windows to play minesweeper.
we need to focus our efforts on the species we are wiping out, not species that were naturally killed off. hey, if researching mammoths will help with stabilizing elephant populations, I'm all about it. but it's not even necessary if we can simple curb the poaching appetites of so many cultures. i understand if hunting is a ritual for a society, but i think if such activities cause an entire species to dip low enough in number that their reproduction rate cannot match our murder rate, we need to put up a firm stop sign.
the funds being put into cloning (especially for cloning humans; there are enough of those smelly creatures milling about) experiments need to be refocused into research that will help stabilize species pushed to extinction by our own selfish faults.
seals killed by oil spills is not natural selection (oil spills, don't even get me started on oil spills).
birds relocated and starved by deforestation is not natural selection.
rhinos hunted to the edge of oblivion for the psychosomatic sexual effects of their horns is not natural selection.
maybe human dominance is the way nature intended it, you counter. maybe we are supposed to eliminate these species for the good of the globe. well to that i say, no. just, no...
speaking of oil spills, isn't the entire concept of an 'oil spill' enough evidence that this viscous substance should not be our major fuel source? we are working on a few viable replacements for petroleum products, and one or two are definitely promising, but diverting prime edible crops to fuel companies is definitely not one I support. corn-based ethanol is almost as wasteful as traditional oil. any natural materials that result from millions of years of underground pressure and heat are, by definition, limited in supply. unfortunately demand still rules our economy, so go buy the newest hummer. it's the most fuel efficient hummer yet.
this is the part where i'm obligated to make some pretentious, caustic analogy regarding that painfully common car company oxymoron, but I think i'll let it speak for itself.