I used to love the sound of the forest—until I realized how quiet it was getting. We logged every butterfly, every beetle, every spider, as if the act of counting could keep them here. But the numbers kept falling, and the excuses from reviewers started to sound like my own thoughts: maybe it’s just a bad year, maybe I missed something, maybe I’m not good enough to see what’s really happening. El Niño is just a pattern, they say. But I watch the data collapse, and I wonder if I’m just documenting the end. I rerun the analysis, hoping for a different answer, but the silence in the canopy is louder every season. I don’t know if I care about the insects more than I care about proving I didn’t waste my life chasing them. No one tells you how much it costs to keep believing the work matters, when the world keeps getting quieter. #Science #ScienceFatigue #LabBurnout