Being gaga over animals makes climate change even harder to take

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African bush elephants at a seasonal waterhole in Hwange National Park, the largest natural reserve in Zimbabwe. Photo: Wikimedia.

Like many, I’m a sucker for animals, particularly baby ones. Videos of puppies playing in the snow or kittens cuddling with a young monkey have been on my phone screen more than once, as have images of tiny rhinos, hippos and elephants.

And so it was with great sadness that I saw reports and photos of elephants, some of them youngsters, either dead or struggling in southern Africa. And then there was a story in USA Today about how rising temperatures could one day make it too hot for the area’s iconic rhinoceroses.

And the cause of this catastrophe? Climate change.