Thawing of the permafrost would release enormous quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and cause a loop that makes a worse situation.
Today the tundra is dominated by moss. But when woolly mammoths were around, it was largely grassland. Some researchers believe that woolly mammoths were ecosystem engineers, maintaining the grasslands by breaking up moss, knocking down trees and providing fertilizer with their droppings. The restored grassland would keep the soil from melting and eroding, and might even lock away heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
In recent years, ‘’rewilding’’ has been a popular idea to save the environment, that is, to restore the land to a state of wilderness and leave it to the nature to develop on its own. Scientists grow about 150 species of Pleistocene fauna in the world-renowned ‘’Pleistocene Park’’ in Russia, including reindeer, Yakut horses, moose, bison, yaks, Kalmyk cows, and sheep. It’s proved that the grass in the park has increased and the surface temperature has also dropped. It seems the theory of ‘’mammoths save the Arctic’’ is feasible.
The controversy has never stopped since the advent of gene editing technology. This technology is widely used, and scientists use it to study cell or animal diseases, and also modify the genes of crops and food animals to facilitate production. But will the abuse of technology cause unknown environmental harm or social injustice? If you knew animals and plants could be reproduced, would you still respect and protect their habitats?