Summary & Study Guide - Resurrection Science: Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things

By Lee Tang

Prevention and Reversal of Species Extinction

This book is a summary of “Resurrection Science: Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things,” by M. R. O’Connor.

Many species are threatened with extinction because of anthropogenic global warming, degraded habitats, overexploitation, disease, and invasive species. In Resurrection Science, journalist M. R. O’Connor introduces us to renowned scientists who try to use expensive, high-tech, and often controversial efforts to save endangered and even extinct species. Each chapter focuses on a unique species like the northern white rhinoceros, the passenger pigeons, and the Tanzanian rainforest spray toads, incorporating their natural history and evolutionary biology and raising many ethical, environmental, and philosophical issues in this new science.

Read this book to understand the science and ethics of the prevention and reversal of species extinction.

This guide includes:
* Book Summary—helps you understand the key concepts.
* Online Videos—cover the concepts in more depth.
Value-added from this guide:
* Save time
* Understand key concepts
* Expand your knowledge

• Language: English
• Publisher: LMT Press
• Release date: May 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781988970103

Lee Tang

Lee Tang is a retired executive of a major global insurance company. Prior to his retirement, he has worked as an actuary, a risk officer and a chief financial officer for several major insurance organizations in the United States, Canada, and Taiwan. To learn more about Lee and his work, visit his website and blog at https://lmtpress.wordpress.com. You can reach him by email at [e-mail].

Book preview

Prevention and Reversal of Species Extinction

This book is a summary of Resurrection Science: Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things, by M. R. O’Connor.

Many species are threatened with extinction because of anthropogenic global warming, degraded habitats, overexploitation, disease, and invasive species. In Resurrection Science, journalist M. R. O’Connor introduces us to renowned scientists who try to use expensive, high-tech, and often controversial efforts to save endangered and even extinct species. Each chapter focuses on a unique species like the northern white rhinoceros, the passenger pigeons, and the Tanzanian rainforest spray toads, incorporating their natural history and evolutionary biology and raising many ethical, environmental, and philosophical issues in this new science.

Read this book to understand the science and ethics of the prevention and reversal of species extinction.

This guide includes:

Book Summary—helps you understand the key concepts.

Online Videos—cover the concepts in more depth.

Value-added from this guide:

Save time

Understand key concepts

Expand your knowledge

Important Note About This Guide

This guide is a summary and not a critique/review of the book. The summary may not be organized chapter-wise but summarizes the book’s main ideas, viewpoints, and arguments. It is NOT meant to be a replacement, but a supplement to help you understand the book’s key ideas and recommendations.

Title: Summary & Study Guide - Resurrection Science

Subtitle: Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things

Author: Lee Tang

Publisher: LMT Press (lmtpress.wordpress.com)

Copyright © 2018 by Lee Tang

All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

First Edition: June 2018

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 9781988970103 (ebook)

ISBN 9781720361336 (paperback)

ISBN 9781987063783 (paperback)

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and author make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of these contents and disclaim all warranties such as warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. The website addresses in the book were correct at the time going to print. However, the publisher and author are not responsible for the content of third-party websites, which are subject to change.

To my wife, Lillian, who is the source of energy and love for everything I do, and to Andrew and Amanda: watching you grow up has been a privilege.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

1. An Ark of Toads

2. Tracking Chimeras in the Fakahatchee Strand

3. Exuberant Evolution in a Desert Fish

4. Mysteries of the Whale Called 1334

5. Freezing Crows

6. Metaphysical Rhinos

7. Regenesis of the Passenger Pigeon

8. Nice to Meet You Neanderthal

Coda

Index

About the Author

Introduction

There have been five mass extinction events in Earth’s history. In the Fifth Extinction 66 million years ago, 76 percent of all species died. It took millions of years to recover.

In the early 1990s. scientists predicted that we’re on track for a human-caused mass extinction called the Sixth Extinction. They estimated 27,000 species would become extinct every year and 50 percent of all species would become extinct in the twenty-first century.

The good news is that scientists have overestimated these extinction rates. The actual extinctions have been fewer than expected. But the forces driving extinction remain—anthropogenic global warming, degraded habitats, overexploitation, disease, and invasive species. For those species that can’t adapt fast enough to changing environments, their survival depends on human intervention, from captive breeding and preserving their DNA to frozen zoos to de-extinction. Scientists have not only cloned endangered animals, they are also working to resurrect animals that are already extinct, such as mammoths and passenger pigeons.

But the actions we take can affect the evolution of species. The ethical question is whether humans, knowing their evolutionary impact on species, should engineer evolution in the direction they want. This might include imbuing the species with