Patrick Semansky/AP

President Joe Biden speaks during a Summit for Democracy virtual plenary in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, March 29, 2023, in Washington.

At the Biden administration’s second democracy summit taking place this week, the United States is no longer the sole head honcho but is sharing the lead with four co-hosts: South Korea, Costa Rica, Zambia, and the Netherlands.

One might say President Joe Biden has democratized his democracy summit.

After facing international criticism when organizing the first democracy summit in 2021 that the initiative was too top-down and U.S.-driven – especially given America’s own serious challenges on the democracy front – the White House shifted gears and adopted the co-hosting format.

The intent, analysts say, is to send the message that while democracy faces challenges across the globe, it is also democracies in every region of the world that are setting examples of prosperity, stability, and meeting citizens’ needs.

Add to that, message No. 2: That the U.S., far from projecting “This is how it’s done,” wants to demonstrate humility and is out to learn as much from the process as any of the 120 participating countries.

The co-hosting format “is in response to a criticism that the United States faced the first time around, that this was very unilaterally driven,” says Marti Flacks, Khosravi chair in principled internationalism and director of the human rights initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. Moreover, she adds, “the country- and regional-specific contexts are really where the rubber meets the road in terms of democracy and human rights.”

Also making Mr. Biden’s second gathering of democracies different is the international context: Russia’s war in Ukraine places in stark relief the authoritarian threat against democracies, White House officials and analysts say.

Some add that the Ukrainian people’s determination to preserve their independence and freedoms is inspiring a renewal of democratic aspirations globally.

“This summit takes place against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Ukrainians’ ongoing demonstration of democracy’s resilience,” says Carisa Nietsche, an associate fellow in transatlantic security and threats to democracy at the Center for a New American Security in Washington.

Their battle “is an inspiration to democratic forces around the world,” she says. Ukraine’s staying power and the solidarity it has awakened among other democracies, she adds, “provide a strong counternarrative to what we heard coming out of the pandemic – that autocracies were better at addressing big challenges.”

Patrick Semansky/AP

World leaders attend virtually as President Joe Biden speaks during a Summit for Democracy virtual plenary in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, March 29, 2023, in Washington.

Ukraine’s battle with authoritarian Russia is just one of the signs Freedom House cited to conclude in its annual report early this month that the global struggle for democracy may have reached a “turning point” with democracies’ prospects brightening in every region of the world. Others cite mass pro-democracy movements in countries as diverse as Iran and Israel as indicators of democracy’s enduring appeal.

Challenges and lessons

President Biden addressed the summit’s virtual plenary session Wednesday with an overview of global challenges to democracy. He was joined by Republic of Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol on democracy delivering shared prosperity; Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte on democracy delivering justice for all; Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema on democracy delivering strong institutions; and Costa Rica President Rodrigo Chaves Robles on democracy delivering inclusion and equality.

On Thursday the five co-hosts are set to chair discussions among leaders on key challenges democracies are facing, including corruption; free, fair, and transparent elections; press freedom; youth participation in democracy; and dealing with the good and bad of technology’s impact on democracy.

Mr. Biden as presidential candidate made bolstering democracy a pillar of his foreign policy platform, and came into office declaring the confrontation between democracy and autocracy the century’s defining battle. But his first two years in the White House have not ushered in a global democratic renaissance.

A recent report from the research institute Varieties of Democracy estimates that 72% of the world’s population now lives in autocracies, up from 46% in 2012. This month, Freedom House declared 2022 the 17th consecutive year of global democratic decline – although the freedom watchdog’s annual report did find that the “pace” of democracy’s decline has slowed.

“Pageantry over policy”

Given that context, some experts call the summits a distraction from playing hardball against autocrats.

In an article this week in Foreign Policy, Jon Temin, who served on the State Department policy planning staff under President Barack Obama, sums up the democracy summits as “pageantry over policy.” Mr. Biden, he says, should focus less on celebrating those at the head of the democracy class and more on directly challenging backsliders and rising authoritarians.

“Washington cannot advance the cause of democracy simply by bolstering those who champion it, [but] must also confront the authoritarians responsible for democratic decline,” writes Mr. Temin, now vice president of policy and programs at the Truman Center for National Policy in Washington.

The U.S., he says, should focus more on making “the hard choices between values and interests” instead of skirting them.

Once again this year, the summit’s invitation list raised eyebrows and elicited charges of hypocrisy. Perceived democracy backsliders Hungary and Turkey, both NATO allies, were shunned, while India and the Philippines – both facing criticism for worsening human rights records and rising authoritarian tendencies – were included.

Others say, however, that the co-hosting format goes some ways toward addressing accusations of hypocrisy and Western democracies’ arrogance.

Sharing the hosting spotlight “is sending the strong message that this is not just about the United States, but that strengthening democracy is a team sport and requires participation around the globe,” says Ms. Nietsche at the Center for a New American Security.

Inclusion of “the Global South” among the hosts is especially important, she says, as it underscores democracy’s relevance to developed and developing countries alike. It will also allow for including topics of particular importance to the Global South, she adds, noting that Costa Rica will chair discussions on involvement of youth in democratic governance.

“That’s a key concern for countries across Latin America and Africa,” she says, “where youth populations are large and growing.”

Focus on prosperity

Other proponents of the democracy summits say that perhaps their greatest strength is the inclusion of civil society and the private-sector business community as crucial partners in the battle to stave off rising authoritarianism.

Some call the economic dimension of the democracy struggle key, noting that it is the freedoms and guarantees of the democratic system – such as the rule of law – that have allowed free societies to prosper.

“The idea of a robust marketplace of ideas, with freedom of speech and freedom of association, that is really crucial for real innovation,” says Suzanne Spaulding, director of the Defending Democratic Institutions project at CSIS. “China struggles to match our level of innovation.”

Ms. Nietsche highlights the focus the U.S. is placing on initiatives that aim to make technology a partner in strengthening democracy. She notes that the summit process will launch diverse initiatives, among them connecting civil society with messaging technologies, limiting exports of surveillance technologies to autocracies, and developing rare-earth synthetics to address dependencies on autocracies like China.

“A big emphasis we’re going to see coming out of this summit will be countering the misuse of technology,” she says.

Yes, “pageantry” will no doubt be part of Mr. Biden’s democracy summit, Ms. Nietsche says.

But noting that the process will result in hundreds of projects “aiming for measurable outcomes” and led by leaders, business, and civil society, she adds, “If we have to take a little bit of pageantry along with the initiatives aimed at advancing democracy going forward, I think it’s well worth it.”

Shortly after Lisa Franchetti joined the Navy in 1985, she stepped aboard her first ship and learned where she stood in the eyes of her boss, the ship’s chief engineer.

He said, “‘I don’t think you should be here, and I think I’m going to make sure you fail,’” the now-admiral recalled this month. “For me, it was pretty eye-opening that someone would say that.”

At the time, there were only 17 ship billets open to women in the Navy, and she’d worked hard to get one of them.

When her colleagues heard about the run-in, however, they rallied around her “to make sure that didn’t happen,” she said. “We basically made it look like he was the failure for not wanting [women] to be there.” 

Since last September, Admiral Franchetti has been the vice chief of naval operations, the nation’s second-highest ranking naval officer and the second woman to serve in that position. (Adm. Michelle Howard was the first Black woman – and the first woman ever – to serve as the vice chief, as well as the first woman ever to achieve a four-star rank in the Navy.) 

Admiral Franchetti gathered earlier this month with the U.S. military’s most senior women, including three other four-star generals and admirals. It was the first time those four had ever shared a stage (a welcome dinner the night before was the first time they’d been in the same room together).  

In the history of the American military, hundreds of men have attained the rank of four-star general or admiral, but only 10 women have done the same. 

Senior Airman Kiaundra Miller/U.S. Air Force/File

U.S. Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost (left), Col. Elizabeth Hanson (middle), and Col. Adrienne Williams walk outside the 521st Air Mobility Operations headquarters building at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Sept. 10, 2021. General Van Ovost now heads U.S. Transportation Command.

Half of them – including some pioneering four-star female colleagues who have since retired – gathered at the Military Women’s Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, this March during Women’s History Month to reflect on their careers and swap stories and advice they’d gleaned in their decades of service, with an auditorium full of young troops and older mentors.

During that time, there have been immense “changes in law, in policy, in culture that enabled all of us to be here today – I think it’s the honor of a lifetime to be a witness to this,” Admiral Franchetti said. 

“And I think all of us have been part of the history – and had the opportunity to pay it forward a little bit.” 

“You shouldn’t be here”

Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, too, recalled the early resistance she encountered upon her arrival at F-15 pilot school, soon after Pentagon regulations changed to allow women to fly fighter jets. 

“One of the senior instructors pretty much said, ‘You shouldn’t be here,’” she recalled. “Of course, that was not my plan, and I was a little shocked.” 

It took her “about a day” to recover, and after that, “I tell you what, I really leaned on my peers.” Her fellow male classmates “encouraged me. They said, ‘You have every right to be here. You’re a great pilot. You can wax people, and we’re going to help you.’”

And they did. Up to that point, General Van Ovost had flown heavy planes and had yet to learn basic fighter jet maneuvers, she said. Her classmates worked with her to ensure that “the next time I flew with or against this person” – the senior instructor – “I was ready to wax him.” 

As they’ve steadily risen through the ranks, the women say they rarely experienced the naked disdain they encountered early in their careers – though there have been present-day moments that have given them pause. 

Adm. Linda Fagan, who became the commandant of the Coast Guard last year, recalled experiencing a scene recognized by women across professions when sitting in a meeting full of men recently. 

Jacquelyn Martin/AP/File

Coast Guard Adm. Linda Fagan smiles as she is introduced during her nomination hearing to be commandant of the Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, April 28, 2022, in Washington.

“This has happened – not in the last 18 months, but in the last two years – in a room full of very senior people, mostly white male senior people: They’re going around the table asking for perspective on a topic, and it’ll come to me, and I’ll say something. And there’s just sort of a nod, and they go around, and then two people later, the same thing gets said and they go, ‘Oh, that’s a great idea!’ And it’s like, ‘I just said that!’”

Now that she’s the Coast Guard’s top-ranking officer and the first woman ever to command a U.S. military service, “All of a sudden I’ve become very smart, very funny,” she said. “And it’s like, ‘Wow, how did that happen?’”

Army Gen. Laura Richardson, who currently heads up U.S. Southern Command, said she’s learned through the years that it’s helpful to do some “shaping” and “influencing” behind the scenes before presenting any big idea in any big meeting. 

“You have those alliances, so when you do bring it up, you can count on those reinforcements who have already processed it and agreed with you that it’s a good idea,” she told the audience. “That’s what’s good about us – we know how to do that.” 

Jose Luis Magana/AP/File

Gen. Laura Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, March 24, 2022.

A long way to go

In each of their three-plus decades of service, they have seen significant change for the better. But they acknowledge the military still has “a long way to go” in areas like preventing sexual harassment and assault. Some 8.4% of military women were sexually assaulted on the job during their service, according to a 2022 Pentagon report.

“All of the services have been on a journey around sexual harassment, sexual assault, bullying,” Admiral Fagan said, adding that she believes the trajectory, compared with a decade ago, is positive. “I would not have encouraged my daughter” – now a Coast Guard lieutenant – “to come in if I didn’t believe we could get this done.” 

At heart, the obstacles that women in the military continue to face go “back to women being accepted, versus being included,” General Van Ovost said. 

“If we were fully included, we would have armor that is built for a woman’s body based on how we carry the weight of equipment. We’d have flight suits that would fit us.” 

Admiral Franchetti for her part considered getting out of the Navy early in her career while on shore duty. “I thought, ‘I don’t really like this.’” She was living in southern Oregon, taking classes in massage therapy. “I was definitely on my way out of the Navy,” she said.

Her father counseled her to think about her choice. “So I got a ‘What Color Is Your Parachute?’ book, and I forced myself to sit down at lunch every day and do the workbook,” she said. “What it came down to was the Navy had everything I wanted.”

As they have reached the highest ranks of their services, they are endeavoring, they stressed, to make the U.S. military better for those who follow in their footsteps. 

It’s “incumbent upon us as leaders” to encourage tough conversations and foster diversity in the ranks, said General Van Ovost, who now leads U.S. Transportation Command. If everyone “walks and talks and looks like you – and is an academy grad sitting at that table – you’re not getting the best advice.” 

And once folks are at the table, they have to make sure they speak, too, she added.

“Use your voice. Don’t presume that the others sitting at the table have your perspective,” Admiral Fagan said. “You’re not there by accident. It’s not random. It’s not luck. You’ve earned your way into the room.”

Yacouba Aboubacar has an unusual way to measure the welcome he received as a refugee in Niger. 

His razor blade.

It takes a certain amount of trust, after all, to let a stranger cut your hair – and a good deal more to allow him to circumcise your baby. But since Mr. Aboubacar fled here from neighboring Nigeria in December, he has found his services as a barber and circumciser constantly in demand.

Some of that work comes from other refugees, with whom he lives in a sea of white tents huddled on the edge of this small village. But much of it comes from the locals who inhabit the mud-brick houses in town. 

“I cut hair for everyone,” he says with a smile. And “if there’s a newborn, they can call me to do it.”

Mr. Aboubacar is one of some 200,000 Nigerians who have fled rising violence in recent years to seek refuge in neighboring Niger. Chadakori’s population has doubled to 16,000 since 2020 – a refugee intake on a scale almost unimaginable in the West. Yet the response from Chadakori and other villages like it has largely not been one of resentment or rejection. Instead, in one of the world’s poorest countries – beset by its own problems with violent extremism – locals have made visitors feel welcome, even when there is little to share. 

Guy Peterson/Special to the Christian Science Monitor

Yacouba Aboubacar stands for a portrait in Chadakori camp in southern Niger carrying a leather bag containing his barber's kit, which he managed to bring with him as he fled his village in northern Nigeria.

“Your guest is your god,” says Laouan Magagi, Niger’s minister of humanitarian action and catastrophe management, reciting a popular local proverb. Mr. Magagi, whose grandfather was an immigrant from Nigeria, responds with a firm “non” when asked if Niger would ever impose a cap on the number of refugees it receives. Despite conflicts in some areas of neighboring Nigeria and Mali stretching back more than a decade, “Niger is an open country,” he says. “Niger stands for humanity.”

There, but for the grace of God ...

Niger and Nigeria have long been deeply interlinked. They share a 1,000-mile border – much of it porous. Trade, languages, and culture straddle this colonial-era divide. Still, Niger is not an obvious place to host refugees, no matter how much they share in common with locals. 

At $590, Niger’s GDP per capita ranks the 10th lowest in the world. On the United Nations Human Development Index, Niger has long jostled for last place, and now it sits only above Chad and South Sudan. Meanwhile, climate change has made farming in the semiarid country even more unpredictable, and some 3 million people are expected to face hunger in the next six months, according to the nonprofit Save the Children.

But in welcoming refugees, Niger is not an outlier. About 86% of the world’s refugees live in low- and middle-income countries, and nearly 70% are in a country that neighbors the one they fled from.

Guy Peterson/Special to the Christian Science Monitor

Abou Amadou's children play hopscotch in the sand outside his compound in the village of Chadakori in southern Niger.

“A lot of people disagreed” at first, saying “we should not accept them,” says Achirour Arzika, Chadakori’s traditional chief, recalling the day three years ago when a government delegation came to ask the residents if refugees could be resettled here. But he held firm, and others soon warmed to the idea. “It could happen to us also,” he says. “So we agreed, and we gave a place where we could host them.” 

Besides, he adds matter-of-factly, “this is ... international law,” referencing Niger’s adherence to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention.

Conflict between armed groups and the military have also displaced more than 350,000 Nigeriens, especially as armed jihadist groups spill over from Mali and Burkina Faso to the west, and Boko Haram strikes around Lake Chad to the east. But much of the country is relatively calm compared to its neighbors. 

Robbed at gunpoint

In northwest Nigeria, where Mr. Aboubacar is from, criminal groups stage regular armed robberies and kidnappings. It’s a campaign of terror born of poverty, joblessness, poor governance, and fights over the region’s dwindling land. 

One evening last December, he was sitting outside with friends drinking tea in his village in Sokoto state, near Nigeria’s northern border, when a group of armed men on motorcycles roared to a stop in front of him. They barked a question: Was this Nigeria or Niger? 

When Mr. Aboubacar told them they were in Nigeria, the bandits announced they were going to rob the men and proceeded to raid their homes and take their livestock. But in a sense, it was a reprieve. If they had been in Niger, the bandits said they would have killed them in retribution for how Niger’s military often deals with the Nigerian militants who roam the borderlands. 

After the attack, Mr. Aboubacar and the rest of his village fled north, over the border. He soon found himself in Chadakori, where “we were really received well,” he says. 

Guy Peterson/Special to the Christian Science Monitor

Yacouba Aboubacar, a refugee from Nigeria who has found shelter in the Chadakori camp in southern Niger, makes his living as a barber and occasionally carries out circumcisions.

Integration isn’t always so smooth. Different official languages – French in Niger, English in Nigeria – are used in government as well as education. Refugee students must now make the switch to French, and government forms need translation.

“It’s a very welcoming country. ... It’s just that the resources are very limited,” says Ilaria Manunza, Niger country director for Save the Children, which runs child protection and other youth services in the country’s refugee camps. And the population of refugees, she notes, is constantly in flux. “They tend to go back when the situation is a little bit calmer, and they flee [again] when attacks increase.”

The better dancers?

And, despite Niger’s generosity, most refugees remain poor. In camps set up by the United Nations, families cram into tentlike temporary housing with dirt floors. World Food Program cash stipends sometimes arrive late and have recently been reduced by more than a third. Many are forced to beg in nearby towns. Some locals – even those who support welcoming refugees – complain about sporadic criminal incidents or refugees defaulting on loans. And for every village that has stepped up to host refugees, others have turned them away.  

Four years ago, Anas Habibou led a group of about 350 Nigerian refugees trekking through Niger, seeking somewhere to settle. Some villages offered help, but “many villages refused,” says Mr. Habibou. Today, he is the traditional chief for 5,500 Nigerian refugees who have settled next to the town of Dan Daji Makaou, 22 miles away from Chadakori, where they outnumber the local population by a factor of four or five. “We are safe here,” he says. “Even before NGOs brought anything, the head of the village and his people contributed personally.”

Guy Peterson/Special to the Christian Science Monitor

Yacouba Saidou, a prominent elder in Dan Dadji Makaou, sits in the shade of his mud house, a short walk from the refugee camp that his village is hosting and whose residents now outnumber the village population 5 to 1.

Yacouba Saidou, a prominent Dan Dadji Makaou elder, says that other village leaders in the region warned him that trouble stalked refugees. They told him that the violence that caused Nigerians to flee could strike next on their doorstep. But his town’s experience, he says, has been the opposite. Refugees have been a boon to the local economy, working as farm laborers and brick makers, and spending their earnings in local markets. “It has turned into something beneficial to us,” he says.

In Chadakori, where 19 marriages have quite literally bound the refugee and local populations together, Abou Amadou brags that he was the first Nigerien in his town to marry a Nigerian. 

“After me, five of my friends got married” to refugees, says Mr. Amadou, who, in line with local polygamous customs, recently got married again – to another Nigerian woman. 

Still, differences between the two communities remain – at least according to some. Having hosted two weddings that mixed Nigerien and Nigerian customs, Mr. Amadou says proudly, “Nigeriens are better dancers.”

Mary Altaffer/AP/File

Fourth graders inspect a model of a dodo bird at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, in 2016. Researchers at Colossal Biosciences, a biotechnology company, have hatched a plan to revive the extinct species.

The 1993 film “Jurassic Park” amazed moviegoers with a glimpse into a world that no longer exists – when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The idea of being able to see and interact with these long-gone creatures was awe-inspiring, but also scary when the electric fences lost power. 

Today some of the same ethical questions raised by that fictional story – about our relationship with the natural world and the consequences of “playing God” – are gaining real-world relevance due to advances in bioengineering. 

De-extinction is the idea of bringing extinct species back to life. Advanced genetic engineering techniques are opening the door to doing just that, some scientists say. Efforts now underway to bring back species like the woolly mammoth and the dodo are stirring a blend of wonder, investment, curiosity, and criticism.

However it plays out, some bioethicists see a larger lesson about the interconnections between political, economic, and ecological concerns. 

“What biotechnology ought to do is to teach us to pay attention to interdependency and the interrelationship of all forms of life on the planet,” says Bruce Jennings, a senior fellow at the Center for Humans and Nature. If ecosystems and animals “can flourish and can adapt to the changing weather, that’s beneficial for human beings. If we think about ourselves only, we’re not thinking about ourselves well.”

What is de-extinction? 

Over time, scientists have been exploring several approaches to reviving extinct species. “Backbreeding” is a form of selective breeding, aiming to revive specific ancestral characteristics. Cloning is another option, growing a new embryo (within a species closely related to the extinct one) using a preserved cell nucleus. The recent focus has shifted to a third option: extracting DNA from the remains of an extinct species to create a genetic blueprint that can be inserted into the DNA of a living organism.

All of these methods have challenges that cause some scientists to question whether true de-extinction is even possible. 

The company at the forefront of new efforts in this field is Colossal Biosciences, based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2021, the company first made headlines for its ambition to de-extinct the woolly mammoth within a few years. Most recently, it announced a new project aimed at bringing back the dodo, a bird endemic to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, that was famously hunted to extinction by humans in the 17th century.

By using gene editing to influence the offspring of modern-day Asian elephants, Colossal expects to produce not a true woolly mammoth but a hybrid species that possesses key woolly mammoth traits.  

“What we’re looking at are the core genes that make a mammoth a mammoth and engineering those into existing genes in the Asian elephant genome,” says Beth Shapiro, lead paleogeneticist at Colossal.

Will it work?

Colossal is optimistic. “We haven’t set any timeline on the dodo because applying some of the technologies from our work in mammalian cells to avian just hasn’t been done before,” says CEO and founder Ben Lamm. “We have set a goal for 2028 for our first mammoth calves, and we’re making steady progress on it. There’s no reason to think that we won’t hit those timelines now.”

To skeptics, this won’t really be de-extinction.

“I have a lot of respect for people like Beth Shapiro. She’s done amazing work,” says Corey Bradshaw, professor of global ecology at Flinders University of Adelaide, Australia. “But … I don’t think it will ever be achieved technologically speaking. You have to be able to get every part of the genomic sequence to produce a healthy organism, and you can’t gain every single component of an entire genome without making a mistake in the translation.”

Dr. Bradshaw adds that the population of a revived species won’t be able to expand successfully without adequate genetic diversity, for the same reason that inbreeding carries deleterious effects on offspring in existing species.

Scientists also question whether a revived species will be able to rebuild its population without the former social culture (with their own species) and ecosystems they once relied on.

What values are behind the efforts? 

At a basic level, some proponents point to the sense of wonder and appreciation of nature that could grow from the return of a creature like the dodo. 

Some see a moral obligation, too: When possible, why not try to revive a species if humans played a key role in its extinction?

Backers also say de-extinction holds a range of potential benefits from expanding biodiversity to protecting or reviving certain ecosystems, which helps humans too. 

“Unfortunately, biodiversity loss is a major thing that [humans] are contributing to,” says Colossal’s Mr. Lamm. “What we know is that modern conservation works. It just doesn’t work as fast as humans change the environment or eradicate the species or pollute the environment. And so for us, one of the core values is that we want to ensure that all the technologies that we develop have an application to humans. And giving those technologies to the world to help the biodiversity crisis, we also are looking to bring awareness through these high-profile projects to these issues.”

He says his firm aims to collaborate with stakeholders such as local governments and Indigenous people – including providing its technologies to conservation groups for species preservation, “as well as apply some of those technologies to human health care. That is our goal and our vision.”

Supporters of de-extinction say their efforts can work in tandem with, rather than detract from, ongoing conservation efforts.

What are the objections?

Some say money and scientific muscle could be better used for more traditional efforts to preserve today’s biodiversity. A related concern is that commercial interests could dominate decision-making, amid inadequate public oversight. That could add to the risk of unintended consequences.

In a survey published in 2019 by the Journal of Responsible Innovation, experts generally “indicated de-extinction was more likely to induce hazards, not benefits,” according to a summary of the results. 

Dr. Bradshaw, the ecologist in Australia, notes the bigger context: “We’re losing species faster than we have at any point in human history and even geological time,” so the paramount focus should be on saving the biodiversity that currently exists.

“I’m not saying that it’s obviously unethical, case closed” to pursue de-extinction, says Mr. Jennings, who teaches at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. “But I do think that part of ethics is not just the logic of your argument and your conclusions, but it’s also the way you carefully define the problem and the goals. I don’t think the problem of the North [where mammoths may have once helped maintain permafrost] is the absence of mammals. I think the problem of the North is the warming [climate].”

That view echoes other experts who don’t necessarily rule out de-extinction but also see its justifiable use as limited.  

In the end, what unites many on both sides is a respect for nature and the goal of stemming a massive decline in biodiversity that is currently underway. Where the critics of de-extinction urge using precious dollars to preserve existing ecosystems, proponents say the emerging technologies may play a positive role alongside those other efforts.

Ruth Goodrich celebrated Christmas doing something no one in her family had done before. 

Boiling maple syrup.

Goodrich Maple Farm in Vermont’s Washington County has been family-owned since 1840, and Ruth and her husband, Glenn, have operated the business for the past four decades. They started with 25 trees and have expanded to 150,000. Ms. Goodrich has seen it all, but tapping trees in December was a first, as winter brought rain instead of snow. 

“That was the earliest we’ve ever boiled,” says Ms. Goodrich. Due to the warm New England winter, a season that normally would have begun in early March started three months early. 

“Mother Nature’s doing her own thing,” says Ms. Goodrich. “I say she does what she wants when she wants to. The trees simply cope.”

The Northeast Regional Climate Center dubbed this New England’s “Winter that Wasn’t,” with temperatures that ranged up to 8 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. 

“What normally would have been just a warm winter has become warmer due to climate change,” says Jonathan Winter, associate professor in the department of geography at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. “I don’t think we should assume that every winter from 2023 forward will be this warm, I don’t expect that it will. But I do think this year is a good example of … these types of winters becoming more common. It’s a useful indicator of where we’re headed.”

And that could have economic effects on small businesses from Maine to Connecticut. 

“Businesses that are tied directly to the environment are going to be adversely affected because of seasonal movement,” says Madhavi Venkatesan, an economist at Northeastern University in Boston whose focus is sustainability integrated into economics.

“The smartest businesses are going to be the ones that start to adjust to truly being operationally sustainable rather than trying to hold onto the profits they’ve had in the past,” says Dr. Venkatesan. “The time is changing, and they are part of the future. They have a civic responsibility to the communities that they live in to educate and be the catalyst for change.”  

Warmer temperatures have affected more than just maple sugaring time. Skiing, a favorite winter sport in New England, has been more of a challenge for resorts. Wachusett Mountain in Westminster, Massachusetts, has been preparing for warmer temperatures for years. They installed a new pump house around 10 years ago that doubled their snowmaking abilities. 

“Our snowmaking system is pretty much unmatched, and our skiers have been loving it,” says Chris Stimpson, public relations manager for Wachusett. Just two days of below 27 degrees F before the holidays enabled the mountain to “blow some pretty serious piles of snow.” 

“Even if we don’t get natural snow, if we have cold temps, we can get this place open quick,” says Mr. Stimpson. As of March 15, the number of skiers this year is running 5% ahead of last year. 

The resort's adaptability is not uncommon in the Northeast. 

Steven SenneAP

Passers-by walk their bikes up a hill in a residential area near the Statehouse on Beacon Hill, Feb. 13, 2023, in Boston. For much of the Eastern United States, the winter of 2023 has been a bust.

“Eastern ski resort operators, they’re really hearty folk,” says Adrienne Isaac, director of marketing and communications for the National Ski Areas Association. “They’re very good at being resilient and adapting to these sorts of situations.” 

Resorts have found other ways to keep economically viable, according to Ms. Isaac. Activities such as weddings, adventure courses, or even golf help keep the business afloat. Another option: fat biking.

Maine Huts & Trails, a nonprofit providing backcountry experiences in the Carrabassett Valley in Maine, was known predominantly for its cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Executive director Wolfe Tone, however, has recently been putting the focus on fat biking, or mountain biking in the snow. 

The town of Carrabassett Valley, local ski resort Sugarloaf, and Maine Huts & Trails have been working closely for the past few years to expand mountain biking opportunities, especially for the winter season.

“The more that we can offer for people to do, the greater the draw to get people to stay here,” says Mr. Tone. “That’s a shared strategy of all the participants of the winter economy up here.” He says if the conditions aren’t good for cross-country skiing, they’re great for fat biking. The nonprofit is seeing more and more fat bikers on the trails every year. 

“My first winter [in 2018], it snowed just after Halloween and the snow didn’t leave until after April,” says Mr. Tone. “These last two winters, we’ve had torrential rainstorms at Christmas. We’re definitely seeing some of these extremes and patterns.” He’s asked frequently if climate change creates worries for his business. 

“Yes, undeniably,” says Mr. Tone. But, he flips it. Although the climate is more variable, he says, his part of New England is going to receive snow the longest. “This is still a very important winter region,” he says. 

But some New Englanders lament the lack of a winter wonderland.

“This winter isn’t winter,” says Sue Paul. She’s lived in the region for all 70 years of her life. She remembers her childhood sledding down hills with friends and skating in the park. Now, her grandkids might never experience an outdoor ice rink.

She describes sending her grandkids a picture of the three inches of snow she received after a March nor’easter, and the kids being jealous because they had only gotten rain an hour away in North Easton. They’ve only been able to make “puny” snowmen in their lifetimes.

“Going out in the snow, coming back for hot chocolate, you know the whole tradition,” says Ms. Paul. “It’s not there anymore.” 

Yet other traditions continue. And the Goodrich’s maple syrup season, although unpredictable, always ends with a maple festival in St. Albans, Vermont, where syrup makers across New England gather to compare who made the most that season. 

“There’s a brotherhood and camaraderie among sugar makers,” says Ms. Goodrich. “Even though we’re all competitors, we’re all on the same team fighting Mother Nature and fatigue and breakdowns and everything else.”

AP

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried leaves federal court in New York, Feb. 16. On Tuesday, he was accused in new indictment of paying $40 million bribe to unlock frozen crypto in China.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department threw yet another criminal charge at FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Samuel Bankman-Fried, the young American entrepreneur now under house arrest in California. The charge went far beyond previous ones over his alleged abuses in digital assets markets. It claims Mr. Bankman-Fried directed a bribe of some $40 million to Chinese officials to unfreeze accounts in FTX’s hedge fund.

Suddenly, Washington’s attempts to clean up fraud in crypto markets took on a geopolitical question: Will China cooperate with the United States in probing this alleged bribery, perhaps even begin to help other nations in fighting corruption in general?

The trial of Mr. Bankman-Fried is set for October so China has plenty of time to join a growing list of countries – from Ecuador to Malaysia – that have worked closely with the U.S. on cases of transnational corruption in recent years. Of all U.S. enforcement actions involving alleged bribery overseas, more have been directed toward China than any other country. 

The particular charge against Mr. Bankman-Fried was issued under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, a rather unique law in the world that has enabled American prosecutors to go after any person or company with even a minor legal presence in the U.S. “We now have many foreign partners who have stepped up to join us in the fight against foreign bribery and corruption,” said Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General Nicole Argentieri in a December speech. “Simply put, the recent trend of coordinated investigations and resolutions is here to stay.”

In other words, a global norm to ensure honesty and transparency in business dealings has been spreading, mainly through bilateral and multilateral agreements involving anti-corruption initiatives.

Even with more global enforcement, says Ms. Argentieri, it is up to businesspeople to detect and prevent misconduct. “Putting the people, resources, and controls in place to make sure a company complies with the law is not only the right thing to do, but it ultimately helps companies operate more efficiently and profitably,” she said.

China is not being singled out in this case. “The Department of Justice is committed to detecting, prosecuting, and punishing international corruption whatever form it may take,” Ms. Argentieri said. Yet as the two countries compete to set global rules on many matters – from human rights to fisheries – perhaps they can find common ground on the rules and practices to ensure integrity in business.