Mendel's Ark: Biotechnology and the Future of Extinction

104 Pages·2014·0.98 MB·English

by  Amy Lynn Fletcher (auth.)

Mendel’s Ark
Amy Lynn Fletcher
Mendel’s Ark
Biotechnology and the Future of Extinction
2123
AmyLynnFletcher
SchoolofLanguage,SocialandPoliticalScience
UniversityofCanterbury
Christchurch
NewZealand
ISBN978-94-017-9120-5 ISBN978-94-017-9121-2(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-94-017-9121-2
SpringerNewYorkHeidelbergDordrechtLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014950998
© SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2014
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ToBillandSandraforeverythingandto
BosleyandBudo,justbecause
Contents
1 TheFutureofExtinction........................................ 1
1.1 GoodbyetotheBaiji....................................... 1
1.2 HellototheAnthropocene .................................. 2
1.3 WickedProblemsandSocio-TechnicalImaginaries ............. 5
1.4 TellingStoriesaboutExtinction.............................. 7
1.5 TakingControlofNature’sRealm............................ 8
1.6 TheOnceandFutureBaiji .................................. 10
References ..................................................... 12
2 APoliticalHistoryofExtinction ................................. 15
2.1 FromEdentoExtinction... andBackAgain?.................. 15
2.2 FossilsandFrontiers:DebatingExtinctionDuringtheEnlightenment 18
2.3 ThePoliticsofExtinctionintheProgressiveEra................ 20
2.4 SpaceshipEarth:TwentiethCenturyEnvironmentalism.......... 23
2.5 Climate,CatastropheandConservationBiology ................ 24
2.6 EverythingOldisNewAgain:BiotechnologyandDe-Extinction.. 27
References ..................................................... 28
3 Bio-Inventories:TheDigitizationofNature ....................... 31
3.1 TheyHadtoCountThemAll:BioinformaticsandDNABarcoding 31
3.2 CrackingtheCodeofLife:BioinformaticsintheTwentiethCentury 32
3.3 TheEncyclopediaofLife................................... 34
3.4 ABarcodeforEverySpecies ................................ 37
3.4.1 TransformingEcology:FromSpeciestoGenes .......... 38
3.4.2 TheTaxonomicImpediment .......................... 39
3.5 DigitalNatures............................................ 42
References ..................................................... 45
4 Bio-Interventions: Cloning Endangered Species as Wildlife
Conservation .................................................. 49
4.1 IsNatureOver? ........................................... 49
4.2 TheMolecularFrontier:BiotechnologyandLifeasCode ........ 51
vii
viii Contents
4.3 FromWistarRatstoOncomice:EngineeringAnimals ........... 54
4.4 DollyandPolly:AnimalCloningHitstheBigTime............. 57
4.5 Noah’sArk:CloningontheEdgeofExtinction................. 59
4.6 PreservationinaPetriDish ................................. 61
References ..................................................... 64
5 Bio-Identities:CloningtheRecentlyExtinct....................... 67
5.1 LiminalLives:TheBiopoliticsofDe-extinction ................ 67
5.2 ThePastComesAlive:AncientDNAasTimeTravel ............ 68
5.2.1 NoLongerDeadasaDodo ........................... 69
5.2.2 EverythingOldisNewAgain ......................... 71
5.3 TasmanianTigerTales...................................... 73
5.3.1 Youdon’tknowwhatyougotuntilyouloseit ........... 74
5.4 SpectacularScience........................................ 77
5.5 PickledPupsandPromises.................................. 80
5.6 RevivingandRestoring .................................... 82
5.7 SeeItNow,WhileIt’sStillExtinct ........................... 84
References ..................................................... 86
6 Bio-Imaginaries:BringingBacktheWoollyMammoth ............. 89
6.1 EnteringtheHallofExtinctMonsters......................... 89
6.2 HowtoResurrectaWoollyMammoth ........................ 91
6.2.1 RaisingtheMammoth ............................... 92
6.2.2 PleistoceneDreams ................................. 94
6.3 EngineeringLife:SyntheticBiology.......................... 95
6.4 InSearchofLostWorlds ................................... 96
References ..................................................... 98
Chapter 1
The Future of Extinction
Abstract Astheglobalextinctioncrisisaccelerates,conservationistsandpolicymak-
ersincreasinglydrawuponadvancedbiotechnologiessuchasreproductivecloning,
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA barcoding in the urgent effort to save
species. This book considers the ethical, cultural and social implications of using
these technoscientific tools for wildlife conservation. Drawing upon sources rang-
ing from science to mass media to literature, I focus on the stories we tell about
extinctionandthemeaningsweascribetonatureandtechnology.Thesenarratives,
far from being ephemeral to either politics or conservation, embody our fears and
dreams about the future of nature and our place within it. Our increasing reliance
onbiotechnologicaltoolsisamatterofpracticalconsequence, butalsoaplatform
forconstructingafuturisticwildernessrepopulatedwithsuchwondersasTasmanian
tigers,mammothsandmoas.Biotechnologythusshapesthewildernesseswecanen-
visionandaffectswhichspeciesarelikelytosurviveandeventhosewhichmightone
dayberevived.Thischapterbeginswiththestoryofthefirstknownmarinemammal
tovanishinthetwenty-firstcentury,theYangtzeRiverdolphin,andthenintroduces
themajorthemesandresearchquestionsofthisbook.Thechapterconcludeswitha
preliminarydiscussionoftheemergingdiscourseofde-extinction.
Theideaisnowhoveringbeforemethatmanhimselfcanactas
creatoreveninlivingnature,formingiteventuallyaccordingto
hiswill.
–JacquesLoeb,lettertoErnstMach,26February1890
(Pauly1987)
1.1 GoodbyetotheBaiji
Whilepoliticiansandscientistsargueditsfate, theYangtzeRiverdolphin(Lipotes
vexillifer, also known as the baiji) disappeared sometime in the early twenty-first
century. Scientists and conservationists had known for at least two decades that
thebaijiwascriticallyendangered.Thespecieshadbeendeclaredoneofthemost
endangered on the planet in 1986, when a population of approximately 400 river
dolphins still survived. Approximately a decade later, in 1997, an official survey
of theYangtze River in China counted only thirteen dolphins.Acknowledging the
pendingcatastrophe,theChineseMinistryofAgriculturefinallyapprovedanAction
PlanforCetaceansintheYangtzeRiver in2001, thoughthreeyearslatertheplan
©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2014 1
A.L.Fletcher,Mendel’sArk,DOI10.1007/978-94-017-9121-2_1
2 1 TheFutureofExtinction
had not been implemented, due primarily to a lack of funding. In late 2004, the
InstituteofHydrobiologyinWuhan,China,hostedaninternationalworkshoponthe
urgentneedtodevelopconservationplansforboththebaijiandtheYangtzefinless
porpoise. Even at this late date, scientists spent much of the meeting vigorously
debating whether the remaining baiji should be moved to a dolphinarium or to a
semi-naturalreserve,thoughallagreed“adecisionnottoremovethebaijifromthe
Yangtzecarriesariskthatthespecies—whichrepresentsanentirefamily—willgo
extinct because of the ongoing, and increasing, threats in its natural environment”
(Braulick et al. 2005). In December 2005, the Zoological Society of London, in
associationwiththeBaiji.orgFoundationandtheChineseMinistryofAgriculture,
developed an emergency conservation plan that optimistically included projected
publication by 2009 of a peer-reviewed article on baiji recovery as one of the key
researchoutputs(InternationalUnionforConservationofNature2006).
Yet in 2006, a major 6-week, six-nation expedition along the Yangtze River,
organized by the Wuhan Institute of Hydrobiology and the baiji.org Foundation
(Switzerland),yieldednosightings,leadingscientistsandactiviststoconcludethat
thebaijiwasextinct(Turveyetal.2007).Expertsnotedthatafewanimalsmayhave
beenmissedinthesurveyandgrainyfootageofwhatmighthavebeenalonebaiji
appearedin2007ontheInternet,raisinginternationalhopesthatthespeciesmight
yethavesurvived.Yetevenifoneortwoanimalsendure,thespecies’fateiscertain:
thebaijiseemsunabletoadapteithertothenowextremelydegradedriverortolarge-
scale industrial fishing and dam construction. Even if a few remaining specimens
surviveandcouldmateincaptivity(anopenquestion),notenoughgeneticdiversity
remains to generate a viable, self-sustaining population. August Pfluger, Head of
the baiji.org Foundation, concludes, “‘we have to accept the fact that the Baiji is
functionallyextinct.Welosttherace.Itisatragedy,alossnotonlyforChina,but
fortheentireworld.Weareallincrediblysad’”(ChinaDaily2006).
1.2 HellototheAnthropocene
The baiji was known in pre-industrial China as the Goddess of the Yangtze. Its
demiseisthefirstofficialextinctionofalargevertebrateinmorethan5yearsand
thefourthdisappearanceofanentiremammalfamilysinceAD1500(Turveyetal.
2007). Itisalsothefirstcetaceanknowntohavevanishedasadirectresultofhu-
man impact. The baiji’s extinction is both a scientific and moral tragedy, but it is
important to realize that this tragic narrative is a relatively recent one. To refer to
itinthiswayimposesaninterpretationonaneventthat,inthelatenineteenthcen-
tury, might as readily have been cast as an allegory of the inevitable triumph of
industrialization over nature or as confirmation of the inexorable natural laws re-
cently illuminated by Charles Darwin. As Charles Lyell argued in 1832, 27 years
before the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species brought the
theory of evolution by natural adaption into the cultural mainstream, “amidst the
vicissitudesoftheearth’ssurface,speciescannotbeimmortalbutmustperish,one
1.2 HellototheAnthropocene 3
after another, like the individuals which compose them. There is no possibility of
escapingfromthisconclusion”(Lyell1832).Contemporarybiologistsusetheterm
“backgroundextinctionrate”torefertothenormalprocessesofthemodificationof
onespeciesintoanotherandthedisplacementofsomespecieswithbetteradapted
competitors; moreover, asNormanMacLeodremindsus, extinction“isoneofthe
mostcommonofallecological-evolutionaryprocesses[and]representstheinevitable
corollaryofevolutionvianaturalselection”(MacLeod2005,p.74).Indeed,therich
biodiversity we now cherish depends upon the slow but constant churn in species
and their traits over geological time. The fact that we are better able than previ-
ous generations to document extinction via the tools of social media and science
doesnot,byitself,necessarilymeanthateveryfinaldisappearanceofaspeciesisa
tragedy.
Yet what happened to the baiji had almost nothing to do with the normal back-
groundextinctionrate.Itfinallyvanishedbecauseofsuchuniquelyhumanactivities
as large-scale fishing of the river, indiscriminate use of fishing nets, illegal use
of electric nets, habitat degradation, noise pollution, chemical pollution and an-
thropogenicclimatechange.Evendeliberatepoliticalpersecutionplayedapart,as
ChairmanMaoencouragedslaughterofthebaijiinthe1950saspartoftheCommu-
nistParty’seffortstodestroyspiritualbeliefsamongapeasantChinesepopulation
that venerated the river dolphin. Its disappearance represents a significant and in-
creasinglycommoneventinahuman-inducedperiodofmassextinctionsorapidand
profoundthatsomescientistsarguethattheHolocene(whichbeganapproximately
11,500yearsago)isoverandtheearthhasenteredanewperiodcalledtheAnthro-
pocene, atermcoinedbytheDutchchemistPaulCrutzenin2000.Thepremiseis
straightforward.Inthisnewepoch,viasuchmechanismsasgeo-engineering,genetic
modificationandreproductivetechnologies,“along-heldreligiousandphilosophical
idea—humansasthemastersofplanetEarth—hasturnedintoastarkreality.What
wedonowalreadyaffectstheplanetoftheyear3000oreven50,000”(Crutzenand
Schwagerl2011).
Currently, theYangtze River supports an estimated ten percent of the world’s
populationandisunderintenseenvironmentalstressduetotheThreeGorgesDam
project,aniconicsymbolofChina’srecentemergenceasaglobaleconomicsuper-
powerandatestamenttotheenergyneedssuchmassiveeconomicgrowthgenerates.
Ultimatelythebaiji,auniquespeciesthatevolvedover20millionyears,couldnot
co-exist with the twenty-first century, despite the concerted last-minute efforts of
Chinesescientistsandinternationalactivistorganizationstosaveit.Theextinction
of the baiji thus symbolizes a biodiversity crisis of stunning proportions and exis-
tentialsignificance.Wemournitsdemisenotonlybecauseofitsunusualbeautyand
irretrievability, but also because we are fundamentally responsible and because of
whatitsfatemightportendforotherspeciesattheprecipiceofextinction,including,
perhaps,ourown.AsDr.WangDing,amemberoftheChineseAcademyofScience
andaleadresearcheronthe2006baijiexpeditionwarns,“‘IftheYangtzerivercan-
notsupportthewhite-findolphinatpresent,maybeitcannotsupporthumanbeings
inthefuture.Wemustlearnalessonfromit’”(Coonan2006).