Large herbivores coming back from extinction to combat climate change...

[ollie989898]

I thought this may interest those here who believe that large herds of herbivores could play a huge role in combatting climate change, or, more accurately, help reduce the effect of anthropomorphic CO2 releases. Scientists at Harvard are hard at work trying to resurrect the woolly mammoth as a species because they believe it will stop the thawing of the sub arctic tundra. The mechanism being good old mobstocking basically- they crush down or eat the vegetation and change how the landscape interacts with the climate.

Lab-grown woolly mammoths could walk the Earth in six years if geneticist's new start-up succeeds

Tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm is helping fund a project by Harvard geneticist George Church to revive the woolly mammoth by genetically engineering Asian elephants.

www.cnbc.com

• Tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm is helping to fund a project by Harvard geneticist George Church to revive the woolly mammoth.
• The project, called Colossal, aims to create a calf in as little as six years, Church told CNBC.
• Proponents also say rewilding the Arctic with lab-grown woolly mammoths could slow global warming by slowing the melting of the permafrost, where methane is currently trapped.

A little more than two years ago, serial tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm reached out to renowned Harvard geneticist George Church. The two met in Boston, at Church’s lab, and that fruitful conversation was the catalyst for the start-up Colossal, which is announcing its existence Monday.

The start-up’s goal is ambitious and a little bit crazy: It aims to create a new type of animal similar to the extinct woolly mammoth by genetically engineering endangered Asian elephants to withstand Arctic temperatures.




The project has been kicking around for years, but nobody had ever given it enough funding to get it off the ground. Now it’s a company with $15 million in seed funding from a variety of investors and Lamm as CEO.

 

[Kevtherev]

Need a fooking big electric fence to keep them in and a large crush for TB testing @neilo

 

[CopperBeech]

In theory it works (not thinking of mammoths, but hey why not). Except that the official way of doing it, is to remove large herds of productive herbivores doing exactly that already, and replace them with Exmoor ponies, long horn cattle and Tamworth pigs. Because Exmoor ponies are going to save the world and reverse the climate crises.

 

[Peter]