Conservation Wins. I Still Feel Like I'm Losing.

The world loves a comeback story. Eleven species clawed back from the edge, headlines full of hope. Amur leopards, black rhinos, pandas—everyone wants to hear about the numbers going up. But no one talks about the exhaustion behind those numbers. The nights I spent rewriting the same grant, the emails that went unanswered, the fieldwork that left me with more mosquito bites than data. Every time a population ticked up by a handful, I was supposed to feel triumphant. Instead, I felt the weight of everything we couldn’t save. I know these wins matter. But sometimes, when the lab is quiet and the reports are due, I wonder if I’m just patching holes in a sinking ship. I keep going, but I don’t know if I’m hopeful or just afraid to stop. #Science #ScienceFatigue #ConservationBurnout