In my evolutionary biology class last week, we listened to a Radiolab podcast about Lonesome George (Lonesome George starts around 32:30). Lonesome George was the last Galapagos Pinta Island Tortoise, a species that was thought to have gone extinct about 100 years ago due to over hunting. He was discovered on Pinta in the 80’s, and scientists attempted to breed him with other female tortoises on the island. This breeding efforts were unsuccessful, resulting in infertile offspring, and the species ultimately went extinct when Lonesome George died on June 24th, 2012. The podcast brought up the point that there is not part one species on Earth that is not affected by humans. Whether it be climate change or overhunting, species are going extinct at an unprecedented rate. One scientist states, “We’re God — we might as well get good at it,” meaning that at this point in history, humans have almost complete control over the world’s ecosystems and which species live or die, and at this point we need to learn how to fix the environment to the best of our ability.
This is similar to how Dionysus controls women in The Bacchae. Because he is a god, Dionysus is able to manipulate the women to do whatever he wants. He forces them to abandon their homes, have sex, and kill for him. Although they may give the illusion that they are rebelling against men, the women are completely under his control and are unable to make decisions for themselves. Pentheus, in an attempt to keep women from joining Dionysus, makes it illegal, so Dionysus retaliates by driving Pentheus’ female family members insane. No woman is able to think for herself in The Bacchae, whether she is under Dionysus’ or Pentheus’ control.
In an almost Frankenstein-ian way, some scientists are trying to bring the Pinta tortoise back to life with what they call, the Phoenix Project. They have found tortoises that, although they are not from Pinta, have a lot of Pinta tortoise DNA. By chance, there are a few tortoises that will have a little more pinta DNA than others. They will breed these tortoises together, creating offspring that have a high about of Pinta DNA. After breeding the individuals with the most Pinta DNA for four generations, we could have tortoises that have over ninety percent Pinta DNA. The generation time for tortoises is very long so this means that it could take over a hundred years to do this. The tortoises act like lawnmowers on these islands, eating all of the grass, so without tortoises on Pinta the vegetation is growing out of control — from an ecological standpoint, Pinta can’t wait one hundred years. So in the meantime, they sterilized thirty nine tortoises and put them on Pinta to hold their place until the “originals” are ready. Although some people feel a moral obligation to bring these tortoises back because it is our fault for their extinction (and this science is so fascinating), to me this excessive. Now we are directly playing God. There was one scientist, who at a meeting to discuss what to do about Lonesome George was getting frustrated and yelled, “Shoot that f***ing tortoise and quit wasting our time.” To him, a tortoise is a tortoise is a tortoise — it doesn’t matter if it’s a Pinta or some other tortoise, if you put a similar tortoise their to fill the Pinta’s place, the ecosystem will remain stable.
Right now, like Dionysus, we are in complete control. We are destroying habitats, therefore forcing animals out of their homes, and forcing them to breed with each other to bring back species we killed in the first place. While doing this, we are choosing which animals live and which ones we will allow to go extinct. There are two sides to conservation biology right now. First, there’s the more “Eden” approach, where scientists want to try and return the landscape to what it was like before humans. But many people argue that that’s impossible — humans have taken over the plant. We are God, the asteroid, the main cause of extinction. We are remaking the world — so how can we change it? Climate change means that a lot of species are doomed to extinction. If we can’t save all of the species, how do we decide who lives?
I agree with the first scientist’s point — “We’re God — we might as well get good at it.” As a species, we need to either get better at reducing our impact on the world, or at choosing which animals are the best to save. Dozens of species are going extinct every single day, and we get to choose what to do about it.
Picture Credit: https://www.theguardian.com/science/animal-magic/2017/feb/17/welcome-home-lonesome-george-giant-tortoise-returns-to-galapagos