HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle

Extinction Is Not Forever: Reviving the Passenger Pigeon with The Long Now Foundation's Ben Novak

Views: 995
"Conservation has done 40 years of 'Save the pandas, save the rhinos; if they go extinct, everything's going to hell.' It's been a lot of doom-and-gloom, without a lot of emphasis on, 'Here's a problem. How do we solve it?'" says Ben Novak, lead researcher on a project aiming to bring back the passenger pigeon from extinction.

Novak's work is part of a broader campaign of "de-extinction" being funded by The Long Now Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to fostering, in its own words, "long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years." The Long Now wants to bring back other species, too, and even has a team devoted to de-extinctifying the woolly mammoth.

Novak and his team are studying DNA from taxidermied museum specimens and planning to insert key genes into the genomes of band-tailed pigeons.

"The bird we create will, hopefully, be a bird that looks like a passenger pigeon, acts like a passenger pigeon, could fool anybody into thinking, 'That's the original passenger pigeon.' But at the genetic level, it's a band-tailed pigeon that's been adapted into being a passenger pigeon," says Novak. The process will also involve teaching the birds to behave like passenger pigeons did, possibly by pairing them with homing pigeons dyed to look like passenger pigeons.

The last passenger pigeon died in 1914. So why bother bringing back a bird that clearly couldn't cut it in the modern world? Novak says his primary motivation creating a more robust ecosystem by reintroducing greater biodiversity.

The passenger pigeon existed in million- or even billion-bird flocks that Novak believes had a profound effect on the ecosystem of the Eastern United States when they would roost and feed in trees, breaking branches and clearing out huge tracts of forest along the way. These massive "disturbance cycles" would clear the way for new growth and reinvigorate the ecosystem in the same way that controlled burns of forest do today.

Novak says that undertaking research on projects like this is difficult in a world filled with anti-GMO hysteria and notes that the project has already drawn ample criticism from individuals and groups who fear a Jurassic Park-esque catastrophe on a global scale.

"I got an email telling me to 'Pull out now before our monster pigeon destroys the world,'" says Novak.

In response, he points out that humans successfully wiped out the species in the 19th century using muzzle-loaded shotguns and nets. In an age of satellite GPS tracking, he says we likely have little to fear from the pigeons.

A critique he takes much more seriously comes from certain segments of the conservation movement that see "de-extinction" as a flashy distraction from more traditional, proven methods of saving endangered species and reviving ecosystems. But Novak rejects that sort of zero-sum thinking and believes he's only bringing another potential solution to the table.

"The real, moral fiber of the conservation movement for the past 40 years has been, 'Extinction is forever, so prevent it,'" says Novak. "In my mind, 'extinction is forever' should've never been the foundation of motivation to begin with, because it implies there's a finite end to solutions."

Visit http://reason.com/reasontv for downloadable versions. Subscribe to Reason TV's YouTube channel for daily content like this.

Approximately 10 minutes. Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Shot by Alexis Garcia. Music by Chris Zabriskie. Additional stock footage drawn from the Creative Commons.
@ReasonVidsfollow
Thumbnail for Remy: Oops, I Did it Again! (Britney Spears TSA Parody)1:49
Remy: Oops, I Did it Again! (Britney Spears TSA Parody)
ReasonVids
907 views
Thumbnail for 5 More Drug PSAs That Tried to Scare the Sh*t Out of Us (But Didn't)3:05
5 More Drug PSAs That Tried to Scare the Sh*t Out of Us (But Didn't)
ReasonVids
927 views
Thumbnail for Stossel: Baby Salmon Threatened?5:03
Stossel: Baby Salmon Threatened?
ReasonVids
839 views
Thumbnail for Texas City Officials Think They Can Throw You in Jail for Criticizing Them5:33
Texas City Officials Think They Can Throw You in Jail for Criticizing Them
IJvids
1044 views
Thumbnail for Kathleen Kennedy: The Diversity Hire From Hell | Live From The Lair15:13
Kathleen Kennedy: The Diversity Hire From Hell | Live From The Lair
Terrence Popp
372 views
Thumbnail for Gotta Spread The Hate (The Offspring: Gotta Get Away)4:03
Gotta Spread The Hate (The Offspring: Gotta Get Away)
judenhass
701 views
Thumbnail for Need to do some plowing on the driveway bud0:28
Need to do some plowing on the driveway bud
AOUisgay
442 views
Thumbnail for Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, and the Cult of Silicon Valley31:06
Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, and the Cult of Silicon Valley
ReasonVids
1003 views
Thumbnail for What Should Have Happened at the Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearings6:26
What Should Have Happened at the Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearings
ReasonVids
863 views
Thumbnail for Stonewall 2015: The Night Marriage Equality Became The Law of the Land2:04
Stonewall 2015: The Night Marriage Equality Became The Law of the Land
ReasonVids
824 views
Thumbnail for ObamaCare and Mission Creep: Why health care reform will end up covering much more than you think.3:05
ObamaCare and Mission Creep: Why health care reform will end up covering much more than you think.
ReasonVids
806 views
Thumbnail for What We Saw at NYC's Fast Food Strike2:30
What We Saw at NYC's Fast Food Strike
ReasonVids
953 views
Thumbnail for Why Democrat vs. Republican is the Wrong Way to Look at the 2012 Election30:42
Why Democrat vs. Republican is the Wrong Way to Look at the 2012 Election
ReasonVids
882 views
Thumbnail for The Top Five Environmental Disasters that Didn't Happen6:57
The Top Five Environmental Disasters that Didn't Happen
ReasonVids
873 views
Thumbnail for Alan Bock, rest in peace4:53
Alan Bock, rest in peace
ReasonVids
648 views
Thumbnail for Cutting Government Spending: An Interview with Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño29:01
Cutting Government Spending: An Interview with Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño
ReasonVids
808 views
Thumbnail for Killer Chic: Hollywood's Sick Love Affair with Che Guevara (Chinese translation)8:35
Killer Chic: Hollywood's Sick Love Affair with Che Guevara (Chinese translation)
ReasonVids
897 views
Thumbnail for When you say "mining in Africa"1:55
When you say "mining in Africa"
AOUisgay
434 views
Thumbnail for Stossel: Bernie’s Digital Media Empire5:47
Stossel: Bernie’s Digital Media Empire
ReasonVids
880 views
Thumbnail for Guns, Football, Macho Culture Didn't Kill Jovan Belcher's Girlfriend. Jovan Belcher Did.2:42
Guns, Football, Macho Culture Didn't Kill Jovan Belcher's Girlfriend. Jovan Belcher Did.
ReasonVids
847 views
Thumbnail for "Close The Borders" - Irish have had enough of that degenerate jewry turning Ireland into a shithole.0:11
"Close The Borders" - Irish have had enough of that degenerate jewry turning Ireland into a shithole.
AOUisgay
461 views
Thumbnail for Guy shoots friend accidentally in gun shop0:34
Guy shoots friend accidentally in gun shop
bestofupgoat
501 views
Thumbnail for Hating Breitbart Director Andrew Marcus25:07
Hating Breitbart Director Andrew Marcus
ReasonVids
826 views
Thumbnail for The Government Is Going to Shut Down Again (and That's Bad)4:47
The Government Is Going to Shut Down Again (and That's Bad)
ReasonVids
841 views
Thumbnail for Holding Border Patrol Accountable: Terry Bressi on Recording his 300+ Checkpoint Interactions6:52
Holding Border Patrol Accountable: Terry Bressi on Recording his 300+ Checkpoint Interactions
ReasonVids
856 views

points

Permalink
Reply
long now foundation (organization), extinction, deextinction, genetically modified organism (film subject), genetic engineering (film subject), science (tv genre), conservation movement (organization sector), environmentalism (political ideology), the long now foundation, reason magazine, libertarian
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle