Louis Liebenberg, a South African scientist and tracking expert, believes that the only way to understand and deal with the impact of global warming is to establish an ecosystem's status quo. "At present we have no idea how many species are really threatened, as we do not have enough observations," he says. "Many species could be going extinct without us even knowing it. For example, it is now believed that the Golden Toad [Bufo periglenes] was driven to extinction by climate change. The only reason that this is known is that a research team happened to be studying this particular species. What we need to do now is to generate raw observations about nature, particularly small mammals, reptiles and flora not monitored by conservation agencies, so that we can detect any declines in populations."

Video: Rolex Awards 1998 - CyberTracker