This Earth Day, let’s remember what we stand to lose

A brief list of things worth saving

by Sean O'Kane

Apr 22, 2015, 9:41 PM UTC

Climate change is real, and we’re getting closer to the point where we won’t be able to do anything about the warming of our planet. But everywhere you look, climate change deniers keep popping up.

You can almost understand why that is — trying to care about something that you think might affect us in a few hundred years or more is so hard, right? And it still snows a lot every year, so that obviously doesn’t mean the Earth is warming, right?

The problem is that the effects of climate change are a lot closer than many people realize. Many landscapes, plants, and animals are in danger of not existing in the next 100 years. So in an effort to keep reminding people of the very real, impending threats that climate change poses, here are a few things we’re at risk of losing in the near future.

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Coral reefs

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that coral reefs, like this one found on the Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, are in danger of bleaching and infectious disease due to atmospheric warming. (US Fish and Wildlife Service)

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