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When I arrived at the University of Wisconsin, I was soon introduced to the legacy of former faculty member Aldo Leopold. A famed conservationist, Leopold spearheaded an effort to re-establish “original Wisconsin” landscape and plant communities dating back hundreds of years, before European settlement.
The idea spread as prolifically as the flora. Today, all around the state, one finds prairie, wetland and savanna preservation and restoration efforts that have repaired some of the damage, or simply reversed some of the changes, that modern life has wrought.
Restoring what has been lost transcends ideologies, political parties and even religions. It was a Republican, President Theodore Roosevelt, who began efforts to preserve our forests and public lands. And it was a Democrat, President Franklin Roosevelt, who created the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Soil Conservation Service for reforestation and restoration of natural lands.
In this same vein, for many Christian denominations, the biblical command to exercise dominion over the earth includes responsible protection of the environment. Islam also adopts a stewardship perspective, viewing the earth as a divine creation which we have been entrusted to preserve. And the Baha’i faith emphasizes the beauty of diversity.
Humanity does not have the right to destroy what it cannot create, according to Hindu scholars. And given what we have already lost or destroyed, Judaism offers “tikkun olam,” an ethical duty to repair and heal the world, which here would include preserving and restoring biological diversity and halting or reversing mass extinctions.
The diversity of the natural world is rapidly disappearing because of human actions. According to data published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we are “experiencing a huge episode of population declines and extirpations…” and are on the brink of “biological annihilation.”
Responsible stewardship and repair of our environment means using all our tools, both old and new. Modern biotechnology, used correctly, can help species adapt to habitats whose climates are rapidly changing due to global warming. It can incorporate natural defenses into crops to protect them from the ravages of pests and disease without the need for dangerous chemicals or the use of fertilizers whose runoff causes problems for our lakes and marine life. And advances in bioengineering can help to restore species that seem doomed.
Scientists and companies are on the cusp of resurrecting previously extinct animal species. By reconstructing animal DNA and blending the material with close genetic relatives, de-extinction of animals that once roamed the earth can become reality.
Those same companies are working to rehabilitate populations of the critically endangered northern white rhino.
As science advances, these two initiatives can act as proof of concept to inform further conservation and de-extinction efforts. As a professor of bioethics, I became a consultant to one of these companies because I share the view that we have a moral obligation to heal the world and help the planet avert a looming biodiversity crisis.
There are serious uncertainties when considering how we might use our power to address the biodiversity crisis.
Ecosystems are complex, and any intervention must be modeled with care to avoid unintended, potentially disruptive downstream changes. And animal welfare must be a primary consideration when evaluating how well the affected individuals will do, both as to their physical well-being and their comfort within their habitat.
Regulatory systems, at both the national and transnational level, must be equipped to work with scientists, companies, and the public to oversee the careful process of developing these species and, in the future, possibly introducing them into the environment.
These are significant challenges, and while they can be overcome, they are not without their risks. But it would be foolish, if not to say unethical, to ignore the risk of doing nothing.
About Alta Charo
Alta Charo is the Head of Bioethics at Colossal Biosciences and the Knowles Professor Emerita of Law & Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, where she taught for over 30 years. She has served as a David A. Hamburg Inaugural Fellow at the Nuclear Threat Initiative and held influential roles at the FDA and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. An elected member of several prestigious academies, Charo is also a key contributor to the World Health Organization’s advisory committee on genome editing.
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