Nov

29

Following is a link (and opening text) to an interesting story about an ongoing experiment in ecological rewilding from an unusual global warming proponent –finding the right predator-prey balance, however, may be difficult for the Russian quantum physicist Zimov to achieve.

Given the amount of frozen genetic material preserved from wooly mammoths (I believe one was served as a dinner to the Explorer's Club or some such organization in NYC in the late 1800s), it would appear possible that those creatures might one day reappear also. It should be noted that a Saber cat skull was found in Nashville, Tn back in the 1970s when the foundation for a bank building was being excavated and those Smilodon predators in fact ranged into Florida along with many other Ice Age animals.

One wonders though if New York City (not to mention Canada) would appreciate a return to the Ice Age and an advancing one mile thick glacial ice sheet. The glacial erratic (boulder) in Central Park testifies to the power of these ice sheets. 

Of course Long Island presents the earth-moving examples of a terminal morraine. 

Better yet are stories of the transportation of diamonds from the far north to Wisconsin:

Wild horses have returned to northern Siberia. So have musk oxen, hairy beasts that once shared this icy land with woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats. Moose and reindeer are here, and may one day be joined by Canadian bison and deer.

Later, the predators will come — Siberian tigers, wolves and maybe leopards.

Russian scientist Sergey Zimov is reintroducing these animals to the land where they once roamed in millions to demonstrate his theory that filling the vast emptiness of Siberia with grass-eating animals can slow global warming.


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