Revive & Restore

Have you ever imagined what it would be to have dinosaurs living with us in this planet? May be in the forest outside the city? Revive & Restore is one initiate involved in this. Well they may not have thought that far; but they are doing their bit towards this fiction story. As per their website, Revive & Restore’s mission is to enhance biodiversity through the genetic rescue of endangered and extinct species. They have brought together the fields of molecular biology and conservation biology to try and make this happen. They are also working on bringing back from extinction: passenger pigeons, woolly mammoths, heath hens (a New England grouse), and great auks (a north Atlantic “penguin.”). The initiative is working on genetic rescue for Asian elephants (from a lethal virus), black-footed ferrets (from lethal plague and inbreeding), and Hawaiian native birds (from avian malaria). These projects include sequencing and assembling DNA (ancient, cryopreserved, and living), bioinformatic analysis, genome editing, creating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), cross-species cloning, work with avian primordial germ cells, and captive breeding.

“Gone”— Isabella Kirkland’s painting of 63 species that have gone extinct since the 1700s.

Look what Stewart Brand, Co-founder, Revive & Restore, has to say on The dawn of de-extinction.

Go Green Marathwada

We all are aware of the situations in Marathwada. The drought that has hit the region has cripled life. And this can get replicated in any corner of India in the coming years. Indian Railways has recently transported lakhs of liters of water to the region and probably will be sending more. But is this an effective solution? It can only temporarily sideline the problem. The meteorological department has predicted that the region will receive more than average rainfall this year. What if it doesn't? Or what about next year? I think we need a more permanent solution and this bring me to GREEN COVER of the region. From the pictures I have seen online, it is evident that it is decreasing. Green cover and drought have a direct relation. So may be trying and bringing back green cover may help eleminate crisis. 

Two possible ways which I see can be implemented here comes from two TED talks I had seen. 

The first one is by Shubhendu Sharma, founder Afforestt. His team is involved in manually growing forest. "We are on a mission to bring back our native forests by creating them" reads their mission statement. They take a barren land put in organic fertilizer and water as input and develop a forest 30% denser than conventional plantations. 

The next talk is by Allan Savory. He talks against the popular notion that overgrazing causes desertification. Instead he suggests for planned grazing to bring back greenery. He has provable results from Africa and America. 

May be we can take clue from these two talks and implement it to solve a chunk of the problem we are facing. I hope investment in either of the method can be fruitful.

Source: Internet

P.s.: Click on the corresponding links to know in details