Conservationists Are Learning How To Use a Pretty Face

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.”

This story is real enough. If 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 , a research fellow at the in France, “we may not be doing ourselves, or the planet, any favors.”