Ashtyn Perry, 13, climbs a scorched sequoia tree in Sequoia Crest, Calif. Photo: AP/Noah Berger
Climate change is spurring people to rapidly accelerate their bucket lists — see the millennia-old Sequoia trees before they burn, the glaciers before they melt or the tropical reefs before they die.
Why it matters: Climate change is having a profound impact on the earth's natural wonders.
For more than a century, Californians were taught that the great redwoods were fireproof. The first sequoia tree incinerated in recorded history was in 2015, AP reports.
- Since then, thousands of the giant trees have burned in Sequoia National Park and the adjacent Sequoia National Forest.
- To blame: climate change and long-term forest management policies.
America's most famous glaciers, memorably viewed from the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, are projected to vanish by the end of this century.
- Australia's Great Barrier Reef has lost half its corals in 25 years, a report said last year.