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Resurrecting the Woolly Mammoth and Other Climate Moonshots
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Resurrecting the Woolly Mammoth and Other Climate Moonshots

Max Holmes, Jacquelyn Gill and Ross Andersen
Aspen Institute, 2017
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Scientific
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

Why would humanity revive the long-extinct woolly mammoth? Atlantic senior editor Ross Andersen draws on the expertise of paleoecology professor Jacquelyn Gill and Arctic scientist Max Holmes in a panel about an unusual, extreme effort to fight climate change. getAbstract warmly recommends this innovative talk.

Summary

Why does the world need a “moonshot” to fight climate change? The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the global average. As a result, the region is losing sea ice and permafrost. Melting Arctic ice releases carbon into the atmosphere, which already holds 850 billion tons of carbon. Permafrost contains much more – about 1,500 billion tons. Historically, the “collateral damages” of large carbon discharges (ocean acidification, rising sea levels or changes in a jet stream) drove mass extinctions. Though the planet will endure climate change, the survival of many species, including humans, remains less certain.

Thus, ...

About the Speakers

Arctic scientist Max Holmes is deputy director of the Woods Hole Research Center. Jacquelyn Gill is a professor of paleoecology at the University of Maine. Ross Andersen is a senior editor at The Atlantic.

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