Trump’s crew wants you to think those cute “dire wolves” mean we can stop worrying about saving endangered animals. Climate correspondent Anya Zoledziowski breaks down the dark side of “de-extinction.”
- Is there a quick and easy techno-fix for climate change and its associated problems, like the ongoing threat to endangered species? Unfortunately, not yet. But that ain’t stopping some folks from arguing that we can all chill out, because a breakthrough will supposedly save us.
- The latest example: The “de-extinction” of the dire wolf. Biotech startup Colossal Biosciences claimed last week that it brought the dire wolf back after 12,000 years, sharing pictures of admittedly super cute white wolf pups named Khaleesi, Romulus, and Remus. (Many scientists beg to differ with Colossal's big announcement, but more on that later.)
- Trump’s Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wasted zero time suggesting that the marvel of “de-extinction” means we can now prioritize rolling back protections for endangered plants and animals. “I mean, pick your favorite species, and call up Colossal,” Burgum gushed last week — sounding like he belongs in the first half of a “Jurassic Park” sequel.
- Days later, the Trump administration proposed a new definition of what it means to “harm” a species under the Endangered Species Act — removing habitat destruction from the concept. In essence, this change would mean rolling back a law credited with saving a whopping 99 percent of listed endangered species from extinction.
There are plenty of reasons why so-called “de-extinction” isn’t a magic fix by itself.
- For starters, bringing back a lost plant or animal doesn’t mean that it will have somewhere to live. Human-driven climate change is altering habitats and ecosystems, and making many of them inhospitable for the creatures that have evolved there. Example: Polar bears normally live on ice, and have had a difficult time learning to hunt on dry land. That makes melting sea ice a big problem, and not one we can fix with the push of a button.
- Second, many scientists say these aren’t actually “dire wolves,” anyway. They say they’re really genetically modified grey wolves — or, if you will, designer doggos. Even with today’s miraculous science, there are limits to what we can do.
- “There’s a lot of hubris” in the idea that we can simply press the undo button after losing a species, Ben Prater, Southeast program director for Defenders of Wilderness, told What A Day. “The conversation starts with the excitement of the new technology, but skips over a lot of logic.”
So is that puppy really a dire wolf? The scientists say it’s not. And politically speaking, if Burgum gets his way, it may be more like a cute little trojan horse.
This story is supported by our nonprofit partner, Crooked Ideas. |
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Donald Trump’s battle with Harvard University is only heating up.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is now demanding that Harvard submit a list of students who have engaged in “illegal and violent activities” before the end of next month, or risk losing its ability to admit international students. DHS has also canceled $2.7 billion in grants from the agency, Noem announced.
“With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory. America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars,” she wrote in a statement.
This comes after Harvard’s leadership refused to comply with the administration’s demands to tackle what it calls antisemitism on campus — a charge the university dismissed as the pretext for a power grab. The Education Department froze $2.2 billion in research funds for Harvard earlier this week.
That’s the shot, and here’s the chaser: Trump’s team has no legal evidence that the school violated the law, yet still pulled billions in funding, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post. The resistance is growing: More than 70 current and former college presidents signed a letter supporting Harvard’s pushback. Hundreds of Yale faculty are urging the school to stand strong. Even Columbia, which first caved to some of Trump’s demands, is now adopting a tougher approach to Trump’s overreach.
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A federal judge ruled that Google illegally maintained a monopoly in online advertising, a space the company has dominated for years. The ruling could transform the $1.88 trillion company’s influence over the internet, overlapping with Meta’s anti-monopoly trial that kicked off this week. We love seeing greedy, massive tech companies take some L’s!
ICE agents smashed a Guatemalan man’s car window and forcibly removed him from the vehicle in New Bedford, Massachusetts on Monday, the man’s lawyer said. He has no criminal record and was in the process of finalizing his asylum status, according to the lawyer, who added that ICE agents were looking for someone with a different name. An ICE spokesperson said the man “is an illegally present Guatemalan alien.” Here’s the video.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company is the frontrunner to build the Trump administration’s “Golden Dome” missile defense shield over the United States, according to Reuters. SpaceX would join Palantir and Andruil, two Silicon Valley tech startups with Trump-friendly founders. Is SpaceX the best-equipped company to build this? Tbh, it probably is. Should it be awarded massive contracts while Musk DOGEs around the government? Hell no!
A top Pentagon official, who oversaw the removal of a website devoted to baseball legend Jackie Robinson’s military career, intends to resign, Politico reports. The former official, John Ullyot, tried to play it off, saying: “I was not interested in being number two to anyone in public affairs.” What a sore loser.
Abdul El-Sayed, a public health expert who started his podcast career at Crooked, is running for Sen. Gary Peter’s (D-MI) seat. He was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)... and scored some kind words from Crooked’s Jon Favreau: “What he's done for public health in Detroit is inspiring, and he's exactly the kind of person who should be running for office right now,” Favs wrote.
Remember Fyre Festival, that spectacular failure of a music fest organized by grifter Billy McFarland? Well, Fyre Festival 2 — which involved selling $1.1 million tickets for the “Prometheus God of Fyre” package — was postponed weeks before it was scheduled to kick off… with no new date announced. Boy, I cannot wait for this documentary.
Wendy’s, the fast food chain, is beefing with Katy Perry after joking on social media that the pop star, who recently took a trip to space with Blue Origin, should return there. “Can we send her back,” the burger chain wrote on social media. A source ‘close to the situation’ told People magazine that “this wasn't harmless banter, this was a billion-dollar brand using its platform to publicly demean a woman.” In response, Wendy’s said it respects Perry and her “out-of-this-world-talent.”
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Tim Myers, the former bassist for pop rock band OneRepublic, announced that he’ll challenge Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) for his seat in the suburbs stretching from Los Angeles to Palm Springs. Myers, 40, would be a fresh change for the district: Calvert was first elected in 1992 — 21 years before OneRepublic released that “Counting Stars” banger. Yeah, the dude has been around too long.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope detected a possible sign of life on a distant planet that’s expected to have water, according to a recent report. There are still a lot of questions about the planet, but the research is the best evidence of a possible “biosignature” outside our solar system to date. Sadly, there are no little green aliens buzzing around in UFOs over there… that we know of… yet!
Endangered sea turtles are making a comeback in many places, according to a new survey. “The sea turtle story is one of the real conservation success stories,” an ecologist told the Associated Press. You hear that? Conservation is key to saving endangered species, NOT bringing them back to life!
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