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Climate Adaptation

Russian Scientists Have a Mammoth Plan to Fight Arctic Warming

The key to saving Russia’s vital permafrost is to restore the ecosystem to the way it looked 14,000 years ago, according to a father-and-son duo

Sunrise in Russia’s Yakutsk in eastern Siberia, which has a reputation as the world's coldest city.

Sunrise in Russia’s Yakutsk in eastern Siberia, which has a reputation as the world's coldest city.

Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

Emissions of greenhouse gases from Russia’s thawing Arctic permafrost represent a giant climate threat for the planet. A pair of Russian scientists say the solution may lie in grazing a huge number of animals there, and possibly even a mammoth one - the woolly sort.

Nikita Zimov and his geophysicist father Sergey have a plan to return the Arctic ecosystem to the way it looked some 14,000 years ago at their Pleistocene Park project in Siberia. They’ve also teamed up with a U.S. “de-extinction” company, Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences, that’s working to breed woolly mammoth.