Editing Extinction (section)

== Human attitudes and interests ==
[[File:Sphyrna mokarran fishing.jpg|thumb|upright|A [[great hammerhead]] caught by a sport fisherman. Human exploitation now threatens the survival of this species. [[Overfishing]] is the primary driver of shark population declines, which have fallen over 71% since 1970.<ref>{{cite news |last=Einhorn |first=Catrin |date=January 27, 2021 |title=Shark Populations Are Crashing, With a 'Very Small Window' to Avert Disaster |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/climate/sharks-population-study.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |location= |access-date=January 31, 2021 |archive-date=31 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131005226/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/climate/sharks-population-study.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pacoureau |first1=Nathan |last2=Rigby |first2=Cassandra L. |last3=Kyne |first3=Peter M. |last4=Sherley |first4=Richard B. |last5=Winker |first5=Henning |last6=Carlson |first6=John K. |last7=Fordham |first7=Sonja V. |last8=Barreto |first8=Rodrigo |last9=Fernando |first9=Daniel |last10=Francis |first10=Malcolm P. |last11=Jabado |first11=Rima W. |last12=Herman |first12=Katelyn B. |last13=Liu |first13=Kwang-Ming |last14=Marshall |first14=Andrea D. |last15=Pollom |first15=Riley A. |last16=Romanov |first16=Evgeny V. |last17=Simpfendorfer |first17=Colin A. |last18=Yin |first18=Jamie S. |last19=Kindsvater |first19=Holly K. |last20=Dulvy |first20=Nicholas K. |title=Half a century of global decline in oceanic sharks and rays |journal=Nature |date=28 January 2021 |volume=589 |issue=7843 |pages=567–571 |doi=10.1038/s41586-020-03173-9 |pmid=33505035 |bibcode=2021Natur.589..567P |hdl=10871/124531 |s2cid=231723355 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> ]]

Extinction is an important research topic in the field of [[zoology]], and [[biology]] in general, and has also become an area of concern outside the scientific community. A number of organizations, such as the [[WWF (conservation organization)|Worldwide Fund for Nature]], have been created with the goal of preserving species from extinction. [[Government]]s have attempted, through enacting laws, to avoid habitat destruction, agricultural over-harvesting, and [[pollution]]. While many human-caused extinctions have been accidental, humans have also engaged in the deliberate destruction of some species, such as dangerous [[virus]]es, and the total destruction of other problematic species has been suggested. Other species were deliberately driven to extinction, or nearly so, due to [[poaching]] or because they were "undesirable", or to push for other human agendas. One example was the near extinction of the [[American bison]], which was nearly wiped out by mass hunts sanctioned by the United States government, to force the removal of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]], many of whom relied on the bison for food.<ref name="Kotzman">{{cite book |author1=C. Cormack Gates |author2=Curtis H. Freese |author3=Peter J.P. Gogan |author4=Mandy Kotzman |title=American bison: status survey and conservation guidelines 2010 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=koUrGx-i2ucC&pg=PR15 |access-date=6 November 2011 |publisher=IUCN |isbn=978-2-8317-1149-2 |page=15 |year=2010}}</ref>

Biologist [[Bruce Walsh (scientist)|Bruce Walsh]] states three reasons for scientific interest in the preservation of species: [[genetic resources]], ecosystem stability, and [[ethics]]; and today the scientific community "stress[es] the importance" of maintaining biodiversity.<ref name="Walsh">[[Bruce Walsh (scientist)|Walsh, Bruce]]. [http://nitro.biosci.arizona.edu/courses/EEB105/lectures/extinction/extinction.html Extinction] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970802184301/http://nitro.biosci.arizona.edu/courses/EEB105/lectures/extinction/extinction.html |date=1997-08-02 }}. Bioscience at University of Arizona. Retrieved July 26, 2006.</ref><ref name="CREOcare">Committee on Recently Extinct Organisms. "[http://creo.amnh.org/care.html Why Care About Species That Have Gone Extinct?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060713045653/http://creo.amnh.org/care.html |date=13 July 2006 }}". Retrieved July 30, 2006.</ref>

In modern times, commercial and industrial interests often have to contend with the effects of production on plant and animal life. However, some technologies with minimal, or no, proven harmful effects on ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' can be devastating to wildlife (for example, [[DDT]]).<ref name="INCHEM">International Programme on Chemical Safety (1989). "[http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc83.htm DDT and its Derivatives – Environmental Aspects] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927215945/http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc83.htm |date=27 September 2006 }}". Environmental Health Criteria 83. Retrieved September 20, 2006.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc009.htm |title=DDT and its derivatives (EHC 9, 1979) |access-date=26 September 2020 |archive-date=25 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225180744/http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc009.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Biogeography|Biogeographer]] [[Jared Diamond]] notes that while [[big business]] may label environmental concerns as "exaggerated", and often cause "devastating damage", some corporations find it in their interest to adopt good conservation practices, and even engage in preservation efforts that surpass those taken by [[national park]]s.<ref name="DiamondCollapse">{{cite book |last=Diamond |first=Jared |author-link=Jared Diamond |title=Collapse |publisher=Penguin |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-670-03337-9 |pages=15–17 |chapter=A Tale of Two Farms |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/collapsehowsocie00diam}}</ref>

Governments sometimes see the loss of native species as a loss to [[ecotourism]],<ref name="Drewry">Drewry, Rachel. "[http://www.insideindonesia.org/edit51/orang.htm Ecotourism: Can it save the orangutans?] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070216200744/http://www.insideindonesia.org/edit51/orang.htm |date=February 16, 2007 }}" ''Inside Indonesia''. Retrieved January 26, 2007.</ref> and can enact laws with severe punishment against the trade in native species in an effort to prevent extinction in the wild. [[Nature preserve]]s are created by governments as a means to provide continuing habitats to species crowded by human expansion. The 1992 [[Convention on Biological Diversity]] has resulted in international [[Biodiversity Action Plan]] programmes, which attempt to provide comprehensive guidelines for government biodiversity conservation. Advocacy groups, such as The Wildlands Project<ref name="WildlandsProject">[http://www.wild-earth.org/cms/page1090.cfm The Wildlands Project] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051122155849/http://www.wild-earth.org/cms/page1090.cfm |date=November 22, 2005 }}. Retrieved January 26, 2007.</ref> and the Alliance for Zero Extinctions,<ref>[http://www.zeroextinction.org/ Alliance for Zero Extinctions] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110423151342/http://www.zeroextinction.org/ |date=April 23, 2011 }}. Retrieved January 26, 2007.</ref> work to educate the public and pressure governments into action.

People who live close to nature can be dependent on the survival of all the species in their environment, leaving them highly exposed to extinction [[risk]]s. However, people prioritize day-to-day survival over species conservation; with [[human overpopulation]] in tropical [[developing country|developing countries]], there has been enormous pressure on forests due to [[subsistence agriculture]], including [[slash-and-burn]] agricultural techniques that can reduce endangered species's habitats.<ref>{{Cite book |first1=Anne |last1=Ehrlich |title=Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearance of Species |publisher=Random House, New York |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-394-51312-6}}</ref>

[[Antinatalist]] philosopher [[David Benatar]] concludes that any popular concern about non-human species extinction usually arises out of concern about how the loss of a species will impact human wants and needs, that "we shall live in a world impoverished by the loss of one aspect of faunal diversity, that we shall no longer be able to behold or use that species of animal." He notes that typical concerns about possible human extinction, such as the loss of individual members, are not considered in regards to non-human species extinction.<ref>{{cite book |last=Benatar |first=David |author-link=David Benatar |date=2008 |title=Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence |url=https://archive.org/details/betternevertohav0000bena/page/197 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/betternevertohav0000bena/page/197 197] |isbn=978-0-19-954926-9 |quote=It is noteworthy that human concern about human extinction takes a different form from human concern (where there is any) about the extinction of non-human species. Most humans who are concerned about the extinction of non-human species are not concerned about the individual animals whose lives are cut short in the passage to extinction, even though that is one of the best reasons to be concerned about extinction (at least in its killing form). The popular concern about animal extinction is usually concern for humans—that we shall live in a world impoverished by the loss of one aspect of faunal diversity, that we shall no longer be able to behold or use that species of animal. In other words, none of the typical concerns about human extinction are applied to non-human species extinction.}}</ref> Anthropologist [[Jason Hickel]] speculates that the reason humanity seems largely indifferent to anthropogenic mass species extinction is that we see ourselves as separate from the natural world and the organisms within it. He says that this is due in part to the logic of [[capitalism]]: "that the world is not really alive, and it is certainly not our kin, but rather just stuff to be extracted and discarded – and that includes most of the human beings living here too."<ref>{{cite book |last=Hickel |first=Jason |author-link=Jason Hickel |title=Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World |year=2021 |publisher=Windmill Books |page=80 |isbn=978-1786091215 |quote=It's no wonder that we react so nonchalantly to the ever-mounting statistics about the crisis of mass extinction. We have a habit of taking this information with surprising calm. We don't weep. We don't get worked up. Why? Because we see humans as fundamentally separate from the rest of the living community. Those species are out there, in the environment. They aren't in here; they aren't part of us. It is not surprising that we behave this way. After all, this is the core principle of capitalism: that the world is not really alive, and it is certainly not our kin, but rather just stuff to be extracted and discarded – and that includes most of the human beings living here too. From its very first principles, capitalism has set itself at war against life itself.}}</ref>

=== Planned extinction ===<!-- This section is linked from [[Gene knockout]] -->
{{Main|Eradication of infectious diseases}}

==== Completed ====
* The [[smallpox]] virus is now extinct in the wild,<ref name=WHO_Factsheet>{{cite web |title=Smallpox |work=WHO Factsheet |url=https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/smallpox/en/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070921235036/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/smallpox/en/ |archive-date=2007-09-21}}</ref> although samples are retained in laboratory settings.
* The [[rinderpest]] virus, which [[Cattle diseases|infected domestic cattle]], is now extinct in the wild.<ref name="Normile2008">{{cite journal |last1=Normile |first1=Dennis |title=Driven to Extinction |journal=Science |date=21 March 2008 |volume=319 |issue=5870 |pages=1606–1609 |doi=10.1126/science.319.5870.1606 |pmid=18356500 |s2cid=46157093}}</ref>

==== Proposed ====
===== Disease agents =====
The [[poliovirus]] is now confined to small parts of the world due to extermination efforts.<ref name="polio">{{cite web |url=http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring.aspx |title=Polio cases in the world in 2015 |publisher=The Global Polio Eradication Initiative |access-date=17 February 2016 |archive-date=19 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160219015412/http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref>

''[[Dracunculus medinensis]]'', or Guinea worm, a parasitic worm which causes the disease [[dracunculiasis]], is now close to eradication thanks to efforts led by the [[Carter Center]].<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/3680439/guinea-worm-almost-extinct/ |title=This Species is Close to Extinction and That's a Good Thing |date=23 January 2015 |magazine=Time |access-date=17 February 2016 |archive-date=24 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160224032526/http://time.com/3680439/guinea-worm-almost-extinct/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

''[[Treponema pallidum|Treponema pallidum pertenue]]'', a bacterium which causes the disease [[yaws]], is in the process of being eradicated.

===== Disease vectors =====
Biologist [[Olivia Judson]] has advocated the deliberate extinction of certain disease-carrying [[mosquito]] species. In an article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' on 25 September 2003, she advocated "specicide" of thirty mosquito species by introducing a genetic element that can insert itself into another crucial gene, to create [[recessive]] "[[Gene knockout|knockout genes]]".<ref name="Judson"/> She says that the ''[[Anopheles]]'' mosquitoes (which spread [[malaria]]) and ''[[Aedes]]'' mosquitoes (which spread [[dengue fever]], [[yellow fever]], [[elephantiasis tropica|elephantiasis]], and other diseases) represent only 30 of around 3,500 mosquito species; eradicating these would save at least one million human lives per year, at a cost of reducing the [[genetic diversity]] of the family [[Culicidae]] by only 1%. She further argues that since species become extinct "all the time" the disappearance of a few more will not destroy the [[ecosystem]]: "We're not left with a wasteland every time a species vanishes. Removing one species sometimes causes shifts in the populations of other species—but different need not mean worse." In addition, anti-malarial and [[Mosquito#Control|mosquito control programs]] offer little realistic hope to the 300&nbsp;million people in [[developing nation]]s who will be infected with acute illnesses this year. Although trials are ongoing, she writes that if they fail "we should consider the ultimate swatting".<ref name="Judson">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/25/opinion/a-bug-s-death.html |title=A Bug's Death |date=September 25, 2003 |last=Judson |first=Olivia |author-link=Olivia Judson |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=17 February 2016 |archive-date=6 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306163542/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/25/opinion/a-bug-s-death.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Biologist [[E. O. Wilson]] has advocated the eradication of several species of mosquito, including malaria vector ''[[Anopheles gambiae]]''. Wilson stated, "I'm talking about a very small number of species that have co-evolved with us and are preying on humans, so it would certainly be acceptable to remove them. I believe it's just common sense."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Paulson |first1=Steve |title=Why a famous biologist wants to eradicate killer mosquitoes |url=https://theworld.org/stories/2016-04-04/why-famous-biologist-wants-eradicate-killer-mosquitoes |work=The World from PRX |date=4 April 2016 |access-date=9 February 2022 |archive-date=9 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209131520/https://theworld.org/stories/2016-04-04/why-famous-biologist-wants-eradicate-killer-mosquitoes |url-status=live}}</ref>

There have been many campaigns – some successful – to locally eradicate [[tsetse fly|tsetse flies]] and their [[trypanosoma|trypanosome]]s in areas, countries, and islands of Africa (including [[Príncipe]]).<ref name="Costa-et-al-1916">{{cite book |title=Sleeping Sickness, A Record of Four Years' War against It in the Island of Principe |first1=B. F. |last1=Bruto da Costa |first2=J. F. |last2=Sant' Anna |first3=A. C. |last3=dos Santos |first4=M. G. |last4=de Araujo Alvares |translator-first=J. A. |translator-last=Wyllie |pages=xxii+260 |publisher=Centro Colonial ([[Baillière Tindall]] and Cox) |location=[[Lisbon]] |date=1916 |s2cid=82867664}} (Other {{S2CID|82229617}})</ref><ref name="Nature-book-review-1916">{{cite journal |author=J. W. W. S. |title=The Eradication of Sleeping Sickness from Principe |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |publisher=[[Nature Research]] |volume=98 |issue=2460 |year=1916 |doi=10.1038/098311a0 |pages=311–312 |bibcode=1916Natur..98..311J |s2cid=3964040 |doi-access=free}}</ref> There are currently serious efforts to do away with them all across Africa, and this is generally viewed as beneficial and morally necessary,<ref name="Simarro-et-al-2008">{{cite journal |last1=Simarro |first1=Pere P. |last2=Jannin |first2=Jean |last3=Cattand |first3=Pierre |title=Eliminating Human African Trypanosomiasis: Where Do We Stand and What Comes Next? |journal=[[PLOS Medicine]] |publisher=[[Public Library of Science]] (PLoS) |volume=5 |issue=2 |date=2008-02-26 |doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050055 |page=e55 |pmid=18303943 |pmc=2253612 |s2cid=17608648 |doi-access=free}}</ref> although not always.<ref name="Bouyer-et-al-2018">{{cite journal |last1=Bouyer |first1=Jérémy |last2=Carter |first2=Neil H |last3=Batavia |first3=Chelsea |last4=Nelson |first4=Michael Paul |author-link4=Michael P. Nelson |title=The Ethics of Eliminating Harmful Species: The Case of the Tsetse Fly |journal=[[BioScience]] |publisher=[[American Institute of Biological Sciences]] and [[Oxford University Press]] |volume=69 |issue=2 |date=2018-12-19 |doi=10.1093/biosci/biy155 |pages=125–135 |pmid=30792543 |pmc=6377282 |s2cid=67788418 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Cloning ===
{{Main|De-extinction}}
[[File:Pyrenean Ibex.png|thumb|upright|The [[Pyrenean ibex]], the only animal to have been brought back from extinction and the only one to go extinct twice. The ibex apparently only lived for several minutes.]]

Some, such as Harvard geneticist [[George M. Church]], believe that ongoing technological advances will let us "bring back to life" an extinct species by [[Cloning#Cloning extinct and endangered species|cloning]], using [[DNA]] from the remains of that species. Proposed targets for cloning include the [[mammoth]], the [[thylacine]], and the [[Pyrenean ibex]]. For this to succeed, enough individuals would have to be cloned, from the DNA of different individuals (in the case of sexually reproducing organisms) to create a viable population. Though [[bioethics|bioethical]] and [[philosophy|philosophical]] objections have been raised,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://articles.latimes.com/2000/dec/24/news/mn-4250/2 |title=Cloned Goat Would Revive Extinct Line |author=A. Zitner |date=2000-12-24 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=2010-05-17 |archive-date=25 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110825212540/http://articles.latimes.com/2000/dec/24/news/mn-4250/2 |url-status=dead}}</ref> the cloning of extinct creatures seems theoretically possible.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/science/20mammoth.html?_r=1 |title=Regenerating a Mammoth for $10 Million |author=Nicholas Wade |author-link=Nicholas Wade |date=2008-11-19 |access-date=2010-05-17 |work=The New York Times |archive-date=12 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312075740/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/science/20mammoth.html?_r=1 |url-status=live |quote=The cell could be converted into an embryo and brought to term by an elephant, a project he estimated would cost some $10 million. 'This is something that could work, though it will be tedious and expensive,&nbsp;...'}}</ref>

In 2003, scientists tried to clone the extinct Pyrenean ibex (''C. p. pyrenaica'').<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Folch |first1=J. |last2=Cocero |first2=M. J. |last3=Chesné |first3=P. |last4=Alabart |first4=J. L. |last5=Domínguez |first5=V. |display-authors=1 |date=2009 |title=First birth of an animal from an extinct subspecies (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica) by cloning |journal=Theriogenology |volume=71 |issue=6 |pages=1026–1034 |doi=10.1016/j.theriogenology.2008.11.005 |pmid=19167744 |doi-access=free}}</ref> This attempt failed: of the 285 embryos reconstructed, 54 were transferred to 12 [[Spanish ibex]]es and ibex–domestic [[goat]] hybrids, but only two survived the initial two months of gestation before they, too, died.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/cloned-goat-dies-after-attempt-to-bring-species-back-from-extinction-1522974.html |title=Cloned goat dies after attempt to bring species back from extinction |author=Steve Connor |date=2009-02-02 |work=[[The Independent]] |access-date=2010-05-17 |location=London |archive-date=13 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013205333/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/cloned-goat-dies-after-attempt-to-bring-species-back-from-extinction-1522974.html |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2009, a second attempt was made to clone the Pyrenean ibex: one clone was born alive, but died seven minutes later, due to physical defects in the lungs.<ref>{{cite news |title=Extinct ibex is resurrected by cloning |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/4409958/Extinct-ibex-is-resurrected-by-cloning.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/4409958/Extinct-ibex-is-resurrected-by-cloning.html |archive-date=2022-01-11 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=31 Jan 2009 |location=London |first1=Richard |last1=Gray |first2=Roger |last2=Dobson}}{{cbignore}}</ref>