This Earth Day comes on the heels of a remarkable turning point in conservation history: Scientists at Colossal Laboratories have claimed the first animal species de-extinction by recreating dire wolves through genetic editing.

Some have argued that modifying animals (in this case, grey wolves) to resemble extinct species is not true de-extinction. Still, it is certainly a significant departure from a past defined by widespread human-caused species loss.

De-extinction is among the extraordinary conservation efforts resulting from human wealth and technological innovation that have turned the tide from animals vanishing to whole species possibly returning to life. As humans make progress, they bring the whole animal kingdom along with them.

Species loss is sometimes considered a purely modern phenomenon, but humans have been exterminating wildlife since prehistory. A prominent theory explaining the extinction of megafauna (large animals such as mastodons, sabertooth cats, mammoths, American lions, and the now topical dire wolves) is geoscientist Paul Martin’s overkill hypothesis, suggesting that humans rapidly hunted many big game animals to extinction.

In the Americas and Australia, where humans first arrived later than in Eurasia or Africa, human beings proved particularly deadly, as local........

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