The Scientists Watching Their Work Disappear From Climate Change - The New York Times

Some are stubborn optimists. Others struggle with despair. Their faces show the weight they carry as they witness the impact of climate change. David Obura with finger coral originally from the southwest Indian Ocean. Credit... Thea Traff for The New York Times Supported by Interviews by Catrin Einhorn Photographs by Thea Traff Amid the chaos of climate change, humans tend to focus on humans. But Earth is home to countless other species, including animals, plants and fungi. For centuries, we have been making it harder for them to exist by cutting down forests, plowing grasslands, building roads, damming rivers, draining wetlands and polluting. Now that wildlife is depleted and hemmed in, climate change has come crashing down. In 2016, scientists in Australia announced the loss of a rodent called the Bramble Cay melomys, one of the first known species driven to global extinction by climate change. Others are all but certain to follow. How many depends on how much we let the planet heat.

Some are stubborn optimists. Others struggle with despair. Their faces show the weight they carry as they witness the impact of climate change. David Obura with finger coral originally from the southwest Indian Ocean. Credit... Thea Traff for The New York Times Supported by Interviews by Catrin Einhorn Photographs by Thea Traff Amid the chaos of climate change, humans tend to focus on humans. But Earth is home to countless other species, including animals, plants and fungi. For centuries, we have been making it harder for them to exist by cutting down forests, plowing grasslands, building road