Time machine anyone?

How wonderful it would have been to be born 200 years ago with so many species still to be discovered. Now we are discovering the loss of species rather than their existence. Almost everything has been classified and the hope of finding anything new is diminished by the impossibility of knowing every species currently documented. This is not to say I believe well known species are uninteresting but that the general public can look at the photo of a raccoon and go "that's just a raccoon" without the slightest bit of emotion being impressed upon them. This is frustrating. It is an incredible challenge to create or discuss something that has already been dismissed as common and even more so something that is rare, but yes, already discovered and studied. When a creature falls under the 'endangered species' category suddenly it is political. When it doesn't it's banal. So what is a naturalist to do in a world where a photo of a new iphone is far more exciting than a photo of an old species?