The threats to wildlife on the African island of Madagascar are manifold: rampant deforestation that has stripped most of the island of its original forest cover, leaving a wasteland; a human population that is growing at 3% a year, straining natural resources and hunting animals for food, especially Madagascar's emblematic lemurs; extractive industry, including a nickel mine not far from a national park that could become the world's biggest.
There's another danger that's invisible, but may be more dangerous than the others put together: climate change. Global warming will do to wildlife what it may do to humans. As the climate changes, animals may be forced to move out of the habitats they're accustomed to — like human refugees. "Global warming is something that all conservationists are worried about," says Russell Mittermeier, the president of Conservation International. "It has the possibility to undo a lot of the work we've done." (Hear Mittermeier discuss the impact that climate change on conservation, and the situation in Madagascar, on this week's Greencast.)
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