Should We Bring Woolly Mammoths Back? by MS

      Humans are currently trying to bring woolly mammoths back from extinction. Woolly mammoths, or Mammuthus Primigenius, was an extinct type of mammoth that was alive during the Ice Age. It had a very good effect on the environment.

     We are taking mammoth genes from frozen woolly mammoth carcasses and putting them in an asian elephant embryo, since the asian elephant is the closest living relative of a woolly mammoth. The baby with mammoth genes will be called a Mammophant. Some people hope to do this by 2027, but others don't want to do it at all.

     The people who want to resurrect the woolly mammoth say we're part of the reason they went extinct and it's our responsibility to bring them back. They also say it could help reverse climate change. People who do not want to bring the woolly mammoth back say woolly mammoths would not like the world they come back to, since it would be too hot. Also, they say if we're too focused on bringing the woolly mammoth back, endangered species could go extinct while woolly mammoths are being resurrected. I personally think we should bring woolly mammoths back, but not too many of them. Woolly mammoths used to scrape away a thin layer of permafrost so the cold air could reach other layers farther down and keep them frozen. Under the permafrost is enough carbon to burn every forest on Earth three times! If the permafrost thaws, the carbon would escape and that would be VERY bad! So for that reason I think we should create Mammophants to help. But I also agree that we should focus on helping endangered species. Woolly mammoths would help our planet, which would help some endangered species - but not all of them. So maybe we should put off the woolly mammoth resurrection project for a while.

     I recently did a nonfiction writing project for school, and I chose mine to be about woolly mammoths. At first, I thought it was pretty cool that scientists were trying to bring woolly mammoths back. But as I kept working on my project, I realized how important it is to bring woolly mammoths back. I hope you realize how important Mammuthus Primigenius is, too.