Around parts of Antarctica last year, whole colonies of emperor penguins lost all the chicks they had stoically incubated through weeks of darkness, minus 50 degrees Celsius temperatures and 160 kilometers-per-hour winds.
This sad discovery came via a combination of commercial and government satellites that scientists adapted to spy on the penguins. These iconic birds depend on sea ice as a platform for breeding and raising chicks, but as the globe is warming, ice is melting too early. The chicks, too young to swim, are drowning.
Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the emperor penguin as endangered. The fact that they and other penguin species are in trouble brings up a thorny philosophical question: Why should people care about disappearing species? Often when confronting the public with critically endangered frogs or disappearing rainforest plants, scientists will warn people that some useful compound, maybe a cure for cancer, could be lurking within them. But what if an animal doesn’t have any obvious use? What if penguins aren’t helpful to humans?