Conservationists Are Learning How To Use a Pretty Face - Facts So Romantic

This August, German photographer Kerstin Langenberger posted a photo to Facebook of a frail polar bear, evidently starved, adrift among the disappearing ice. In the photo’s caption, she blamed global warming for the bear’s malnutrition and for the death of many others she’d seen. Articles featuring Langenberger’s commentary and photo followed soon after, with headlines like: “Polar Bear’s Shocking Appearance May Be Tied To Climate Change” and “Emaciated Polar Bear ‘Doomed to Death’ Fuels Global Warming Debate.”

An emaciated polar bear, scavenging in the Arctic.Kerstin Langenberger

This story is real enough. If something doesn’t change soon, two-thirds of polar bears—whose plight has been symbolic of the havoc wrecked by climate change—may disappear from the wild by 2050. But the Arctic mammal is only one species at risk of extinction—by some estimates, 30 to 50 percent of Earth’s two million living species may go extinct in less than a couple decades. There are plenty of less-lovable species that may be more important to save than species that happen to have captured the popular imagination, for the sake of biodiversity and ecological resilience. “If we only care about polar bears,” says Laura Pollock, a research fellow at the Read More…