Some people like them big and hairy
Plans to begin breeding a renewed race of wooly mammoths have been kicked around for decades -- in fact, I was little disappointed to learn from this National Geographic article from April 8 that so far it's still all speculation. (Thanks for reminding me of this with a forwarded link, Tammy.)
A revivified race of mammoths - as park/zoo attractions has popped up in pop culture here and there over the years, including a mention in one of the latter Alan Moore issues of Miracleman ("Marvelman" purists, fists twisted in anti-Marvel angst, be-damned, as by that point it was being written for and published by the US-based Eclipse and was now, simply, Miracleman.) as I recall. In that instance, though, additional genetic tampering had been done so that a group of "tame mammoths" had been released to live in Central Park. After all, it was supposed to be part of a new Golden Age for mankind.
I see that mammoths must be wandering around the public unconscious these days, as even John Varley is about to have a book about a quest to revive the breed - which apparently soon turns into a time-travel twist... which strikes me as a bit much, but I haven't read it as yet since I'm not a book reviewer and it's not due out until June. I suspect it's already received bids for film rights.
I suppose mammoths hold some interest for us because our history has overlapped. They're mammals, too, and so much closer to us than the truly ancient dinosaurs are. Besides, we like elephants. Isn't Ganesh simply the most huggable deity so far?Also, whether it's as part of a natural terran process or brought on in an accelerated and exaggerated fashion by man's tampering, the idea of a new Ice Age has been kicked around quite a bit in recent decades. Personally, I think it's all just another symptom of a world in which so many of us have just enough free time to wish for something globally devastating to happen to reset the game, so to speak. Something more immediate and tangible to deal with rather than an increasingly abstracted existence where so many of us have to spend most of our lives doing things we don't care about, which have no immediate benefit to us, so as to make the money we need to stay fed and warm long enough to go do more of the same -- and maybe watch a movie in between somewhere. Many's the early Monday morning I wish the hungry dead would just start walking already! Oh, I know, that would become a pain in the ass soon enough, too, but I can't help thinking it would be a more meaningful existence and something much more easily dealt with.
If nothing else, finally getting back to the recent article linked to up top, there's an anglo-centric, adolescent giggle to be found in learning that a central university cited in the article as working with moving sperm around to target eggs is Kinki University.
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