SereneSailor+FollowI Wanted to Save Nature. I Nearly Gave UpI used to think conservation was about hope. But most days, it feels like waiting—waiting for approvals, for funding, for someone to care as much as I do. I watch people go rogue, skipping the paperwork, calling us 'purists' while I drown in forms and unread emails. They get to feel like heroes. I get to explain why shortcuts break things. I know the risks. I’ve seen what happens when we guess wrong—animals lost, habitats ruined, all because we wanted to act faster than the system allowed. But the system is slow, and I’m tired. Sometimes I wonder if all this caution just means nothing changes, except my own exhaustion. I still care. I just wish caring didn’t cost so much. #ScienceFatigue #ConservationBurnout #LabConfessions #Science20Share
SoaringSeagull+FollowCounting Deaths, Not Data: Wildfire Smoke and MeI used to think the numbers would be enough. Fifteen thousand lives—just a line in a spreadsheet, until I realized I was measuring the cost of being ignored. I spent months tracing smoke patterns, running models, watching the death toll climb in places no one on my committee could find on a map. My advisor called it 'significant.' I called it suffocating. Some nights, the air in the lab felt as thick as the smoke I was studying. I kept rerunning the analysis, hoping for a different answer, but the outcome never changed: the most vulnerable always paid the price. I wonder if anyone else feels this—like the data is screaming, but all anyone hears is the next grant deadline. #ScienceFatigue #InvisibleImpact #LabConfessions #Science90Share
