limitations of this approach
Zoos, or their equivalents, will be the primary beneficiaries of "seize 'em and freeze 'em," because this approach does not capture either 1) the biodiversity represented in a species or 2) the functioning of the ecosystem in which the species was an element. On the biodiversity question, consider the adequacy of preserving the human species by freezing the eggs and sperm, or else the somatic tissue, of just two individual humans. Or even of a thousand individuals. You get a genetic bottleneck, a population with insufficient genetic diversity to avoid inbreeding diseases -- like cheetahs. As to the ecosystem issue, which is more difficult to quantify but just as real, consider what we would have if Bishop de Landa had not burned the codices of the Maya. Those books were the distillation of Maya knowledge and culture. Yes, it would be great if humanity had access to that written record, but that would not bring back that culture, which the Spaniards subjugated, because culture is a living thing. Same with the ecosystem, which as as much a universe of functioning relationships as it is a collection of genomes.
