DAILY TRIFECTA: You Never Go Full Extinction
We're Pruning The Tree Of Life To Death
TITLE: Mutilation of the tree of life via mass extinction of animal genera
EXCERPT: Beyond any doubt, the human-driven sixth mass extinction is more severe than previously assessed and is rapidly accelerating. The current generic extinction rates are 35 times higher than expected background rates prevailing in the last million years under the absence of human impacts. The genera lost in the last five centuries would have taken some 18,000 y to vanish in the absence of human beings. Current generic extinction rates will likely greatly accelerate in the next few decades due to drivers accompanying the growth and consumption of the human enterprise such as habitat destruction, illegal trade, and climate disruption. If all now-endangered genera were to vanish by 2,100, extinction rates would be 354 (average) or 511 (for mammals) times higher than background rates, meaning that genera lost in three centuries would have taken 106,000 and 153,000 y to become EX in the absence of humans. Such mutilation of the tree of life and the resulting loss of ecosystem services provided by biodiversity to humanity is a serious threat to the stability of civilization. Immediate political, economic, and social efforts of an unprecedented scale are essential if we are to prevent these extinctions and their societal impacts.
TITLE: Ben Lamm’s Colossal Biosciences is trying to save northern white rhinos from extinction
EXCERPT: Serial entrepreneur Ben Lamm’s company Colossal has become well-known for its lofty goals of resurrecting the dead through genetic sequencing and engineering. The firm landed a $150 million investment to back its latest ambitious endeavor to revive dodo birds in January. A person familiar with the company said the latest funding round gave the startup a valuation of about $1.5 billion, Bloomberg News reported.
“As part of our larger de-extinction work, we want to leverage our techniques and toolkit for conservation,” Lamm said in a statement. “We are creating tools that will allow us to correct what has been lost and create ecosystems that will be sustainable for future generations.”
The northern white rhino is considered to be functionally extinct in the wild, as the last two living, named Najin and Fatu are being cared for at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. One of the remaining has aged out of egg retrieval, the groups stated.
The urgency behind this work centers on the rate at which species are lost is faster than restoration efforts. By 2050, 50% of all biodiversity will be lost if nothing changes, according to Colossal.
While a majority of conservation efforts focus on preserving land and ending poaching, Lamm said with population levels so low, more advanced technology is needed to protect species.
The company plans to generate a catalog of all museum samples of the rhinos to extract ancient DNA to sequence and study the genetic diversity of the species. Then once the loss to gene pools has been identified, Colossal will use the sequences as targets to restore the gene diversity into cell lines that’ll be used to create embryos.
TITLE: Flint firm work to help save endangered European eel
EXCERPT: Tissue manufacturer Essity's Oakenholt Mill has a reservoir at the back of the site that supplies water for the production process. But it is also home to rare European eels that make their way inland before returning to the sea to breed.
For many years, generations of young eels have made their way via a water-filled concrete channel with steps up from the River Dee to the Oakenholt reservoir. But, as part of the company's efforts to support its global environmental efforts, it worked with Natural Resources Wales and environmental consultancy Five Rivers to come up with up with a better solution.
During work to create a new spillway from the reservoir, the mill funded the installation of a 200-metre-long eel pass to help the young eels make the arduous climb.
This comprises multiple strands of what is known as 'spat rope' which is attached at the site of the spillway, becomes covered in vegetation and provides a safe and easy route for the eels.
The mill's quality and environment manager, Dawn Harris, said: "Given our commitment to environmental best-practice, we were keen to make this significant investment to help protect European eels - that have been in decline over the past 30 years and are on the critically-endangered list.