Can we De-extinct Animals?

Imagine the world in the not-too-distant future. Listeners to this podcast today could still be alive on the day we are imagining. The sun rises, it is a warm day, and we look at the sky. There are clouds and planes, but otherwise empty. Some would say we are in the year 2100. Others would claim we are in the year 2050. Regardless of which tomorrow we are looking at, we live in a dystopia regarding life on Earth. As of this day, fifty percent of the animal and plant species on the Earth in the year 2000 have just gone extinct. This threat didn't develop overnight, nor was the Earth hit by an asteroid. We didn't have a natural mass catastrophe.