Introduction: Our Earth has experienced five mass extinctions that were caused by natural disasters such as comet or meteor showers impacting and destroying sections of the Earth, the shifting of continents caused by the shifts of platonic plates and climate changes such as the end of the ice age that caused certain species to die out. These mass extinctions happened over a long period of thousands of years and not in the concentrated 200 years of drastic geological and biological changes that have caused scientists to believe that we are now living in the 6th mass extinction. Annenberg Learner (2013) says Unlike the previous mass extinctions that were due to natural phenomena’s, the 6th mass extinction is due to human influence. We have contributed to the harming of species and habits with factors such as deforestation, over fishing, poaching and pollution by factories. Our carbon footprint has caused a whole in our ozone layer and caused a green house effect commonly known as Global Warming. All these issues upon our environment are threatening the Earth’s biodiversity and increasing the amount of endangered and already extinct species. Despite the United Nations Partners on Climate Change (2011) getting countries to agree and sign the Copenhagen Accord to reduce their emissions of green house gases so the carbon footprint can be lowered, individuals taking an active part in recycling and reusing and the designated protected areas being established, it may not be enough to bring back balance to our Earth. We are faced with the dilemma of our own extinction drawing near. Armed with intelligence and the capabilities of genetic engineering and cloning, we could rectify the damage done with the new age technology that has been prov... ... middle of paper ... ...ived among extinct species and their revival through cloning may revive the diseases as well. If an extinct animal is revived it may bring back a deadly disease to which we will not have the understanding or medical technology to prevent a pandemic. Personal Point of View Cloning personally doesn’t seem like a long term solution and the cloning of humans goes against my values but I do feel however that genetic engineering could help prevent extinction, help humans and the environment from what I have researched. Conclusion Although there are a few risks pertaining to the cloning and genetic engineering of animals to eliminate extinction, the advantages and possibilities still prove to be greater and will aid animals, the environment and humans in the long run so I conclude that cloning and genetic engineering are a viable option to help eliminate extinction.
The biggest mass extinction of the past 600 million years (My), the end-Permian event (251 My ago), witnessed the loss of as much as 95% of all species on Earth. Key questions for biologists concern what combination of environmental changes could possibly have had such a devastating effect, the scale and pattern of species loss, and the nature of the recovery. New studies on dating the event, contemporary volcanic activity, and the anatomy of the environmental crisis have changed our perspectives dramatically in the past five years. Evidence on causation is equivocal, with support for either an asteroid impact or mass volcanism, but the latter seems most probable.
Today, we as a society world wide have a new issue to deal with. Science has discovered the means in which to clone animals, opening a whole new discussion. Many people are inclined to say why would science even wish to peruse this method of research. Lewis Thomas says in his essay "The Hazards of Science"
When one thinks of cloning generally the first idea that pops into your mind is a large tube filled with some creature attached to a lot of tubes. Cloning actually, is a much more complicated and difficult process. Cloning, scientifically defined is, "asexual reproduction or as the creation of genetically identical individuals" (1). In the cloning process the DNA of one individual creature is "copied" into the cell, or embryo, of another and then that embryo develops into a baby and proceeds down the process of birth and embryological development. Currently, many scientists believe that if the DNA of endangered species is rescued and preserved that the DNA of that species could undergo the cloning process and thus produce a clone of that species. The results of this cloning process would be enormous or it "will open a new front in the battle to preserve the Earth's biodiversity by cloning endangered gorillas, tigers and other rare species" (2). Cloning of endangered species would be a monumental achievement for the scientific community. Many people when they think of cloning picture sometime weird science fiction creature in a test but in real life the idea of cloning could be a valuable tool for the environmental community and it would be a process could vastly improve the current situation of endangered species.
...though scientific in this case, is the fact that, if cloning and genetic enginering become widely used technologies, they could begin to alter the natural evolution. When an animal is cloned, the mistakes of the previous generation are repeated. It is currently under question asto whether humans have the knowledge to allow the neceserry changes to occour, even while cloning, so as to stay in touch with the environmental changes. Or whether this halting of evolution could create disaster in the future.
...ophic effects,one slip up could erase an entire species off the face of the Earth. And that is why i pose the question how far is too far when it comes to genetic engineering? How far are we willing to go before we inevitably over-step our boundaries and destroy something as precious as our own species?
Our forests are being cut down at an alarming rate, bearing enormous impacts on the health of earth. Our oceans and seas are being polluted and overfished. Our atmosphere is injected with increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, which hurts the entire planet.
There is no hesitation when it comes to whether humans impact the global environment. However, it is questioned in whether human’s ecological footprint is either negatively or positively impacting. In clear perspective, humans share from both sides and their ecological footprint is noted towards whether it will benefit or harm the environment around them. Topics such as overpopulation, pollution, biomagnification, and deforestation are all human impacted and can harm the environment, but some include benefits into helping the world around us with solutions to their problems.
Last, it could be harmful to our animals today. One passage says that species could carry virus with them after being brought back to life. If A rare old virus killed an animal and they brought it back, it could still be within their DNA and spread to our world today. It would be too much of a risk.
Modern-day genetic technology has granted mankind with the opportunity to bring back extinct species from the dead. If humans have come to possess the DNA from an extinct animal population, it is possible to create an identical clone of the animal in question, effectively “bringing it back from the dead”. Many ethical dilemmas surround the practice of de-extinction, and rightfully so. Recreating an extinct species could produce groundbreaking scientific breakthroughs, generating exciting opportunities for future genetics-based research. However, there could also be monumental consequences: the newly revived, once-extinct species might destroy the ecological equilibrium of modern Earth
One of the oft-heard arguments against reproductive cloning is that humans should not be interfering with nature or "playing god". When it comes to endangered species, I am not persuaded. For the past few millennia, and particularly the past century, humans have been the driving force behind the overwhelming majority of species' extinctions. In other words, we have already been very busy playing god.(Nicholls)
The process of reviving an extinct species is not overly complicated, but it does require a few elements that may be hard to obtain from a species. In order to actually to be eligible for revival a species must have only gone extinct in the last 800,000 years (ngm.nationalgeographic.com). If a species went extinct before that, the environment that it lived in is gone and throwing the organism into this time period’s environment could have disastrous consequences. Enough DNA to sequence the organism must also be present, this assures that we know exactly what makes up the organism and allows us to have the complete “instructions” for the organism before the process starts. Also, an organism must have a close e...
As we ease into the twenty-first century, we realize that genetic engineering is undoubtedly going to have a dramatic effect on our lives. It seems that "with genetic engineering, science has moved from exploring the natural world and its mechanisms to redesigning it." Now, we must ask ourselves this, will that influence be for better, or for worse?
Because the CO2 levels are rising, the ice caps are melting and many more animals can become extinct. When pangea started splitting, there was a lot of volcanic activity, which cause the death of many dinosaurs. A meteor also hit earth and the mass extinction of many land and marine animals happened. There have been five mass extinctions in Earth’s history. The worst one wiped out ninety-six percent of marine life and seventy percent of land organisms. This took millions of years to recover.
As stated above, there are a multitude of causes for this “mass extinction”, and most all of them are caused by humans. One such causality is overfishing. Everyone loves to eat fish. However, with overfishing, humans are collecting more fish than we can consume as a population. Overfishing is when people collect more fish from the o...
Genetic Engineering may or may not be beneficial. In terms of being an advantage, it can help decrease the death rate by destroying disease and has the potential to increase the lifetime of humans. Based on what scientists have discovered , genetic engineering is used as a beneficial technique to slow down the aging process of people, meaning it helps to store more life existence. Cloning is one of its biggest successful advantages which developed a whole new discovery in today’s life making life more interesting and easier. This cloning process has made it pos...