March 12: Cloning extinct species

Sleet streaks my window.

Eyes closed, I try to 

imagine living mammoths.

I read today in the New York Times Magazine about a fascinating project to restore extinct animals. Something about trying to bring mammoths and Passenger Pigeons back into an overdeveloped world undergoing global warming troubles me. So many species still here simply require some care and conservation attention to not go extinct: endangered Piping Plovers being run off beaches, prairie chickens being closed out of habitat by cattle ranchers, white rhinos in Africa, right whales, elephants...

I know, I'm no fun for thinking this way. Where's my creative spirit? We killed them off, but we can bring them back! But this, to me, doesn't seem all that different from Monsanto's genetically engineered corn.