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Back when I was a kid, after a heavy downpour the roads would be crowded with earthworms. You really had to watch where you step to avoid stepping on one of tho
by photoguy112 8y ago
Back when I was a kid, after a heavy downpour the roads would be crowded with earthworms. You really had to watch where you step to avoid stepping on one of those suckers. Fast forward today and I RARELY see a single worm out on the road after a similar downpour.
- twtw 8y agoWhen were you a kid?
- photoguy112 8y agoLate 80's into 90's.
- optimuspaul 8y agoI noticed some worms this past fall after a downpour, it was just a few and it gave me pause. I do recall as well when I was a kid (30ish years ago) that there were a lot more worms. But I lived in the suburbs then, now I'm in the city, but near a large lake and large wooded area.
- markdown 8y agoWhere were you a kid?
- duxup 8y agoMy driveway gets covered with them. They love cooking on that black top.
- kakarot 8y agoHow were you a kid?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- hueving 8y agoMost people start out that way.
- lawlessone 8y agobig if true
- BurningFrog 8y agoAre these the same roads? If you moved from a farm to Manhattan, we need to talk about the setup of this study :)
- dorchadas 8y agoNow that you mention this, I've noticed it too. It's getting rarer and rarer to see them on the roads and driveways after a rain.
- wil421 8y agoI still see tons of worms in the US. It’s been raining like crazy in Georgia and I’ve had to dodge a few worms. During the summer my driveway is a worm death trap. I do a lot of gardening in pots and worms always find their way inside.
- yingw787 8y agoI think I noticed this too. When I was in elementary school in the early 2000s, the stench of run-over worms was almost unbearable after rains. Worm guts everywhere. There were also bugs flying around me whenever I went outside to play. I hated it and wanted it to go away. It did.
- r00fus 8y agoDoes it concern you? It does me.
- yingw787 8y agoOh yeah. Be careful with what you wish for. One day us humans might not be just dominant, we will be alone. And in that sense, I don't want us to prevail against Mother Nature; I just want a healthy balance.
- frutiger 8y agoMother Nature has been around for a very long time. She will not remember us when we are gone.
- Meing4im 8y agoShe does not have that much time and thus tries at intelligent life left. Gradual brightening of the sun will start making the earth uninhabitable in about 800Ma due to accelerated silicate weathering.
- kian 8y agoCan you provide some links with more details? Googling sub-phrases from your comment finds me nothing but information on the natural weathering cycle of silicates as it relates to CO2.
- acqq 8y ago> Mother Nature (...) will not remember us when we are gone. She will. Yes, she will outlive us, but with very heavy losses. Due to these losses, it will be very obvious we have existed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction "one of the most significant extinction events in the history of the Earth" ... "is mainly a result of human activity." "The current rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background rates." And we "just started" (considering the known effects of the human induced global warming).
- ALittleLight 8y agoThis reminds me of a passage in the book Sapiens, where the author muses that there may have been prehistoric tribes where grandparents told tales of when mammoths were so plentiful hunters would take them every month, and the grandchildren would smile and nod. The grandchildren would in turn grow up and tell their grandchildren that there were once beasts called mammoths, and these grandchildren too would smile and nod...
- CalRobert 8y agoThe shifting baselines problem comes up a lot; it related to fish catches It's described more here - https://oceana.org/blog/daniel-pauly-and-george-monbiot-conversation-about-shifting-baselines-syndrome https://oceana.org/blog/daniel-pauly-and-george-monbiot-conv... and aptly illustrated here - https://oceana.org/sites/default/files/285468/catch_of_the_day.jpg https://oceana.org/sites/default/files/285468/catch_of_the_d... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shifting_baseline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shifting_baseline
- gnat 8y agoDaniel Pauly is amazing. We hosted him for a conference here in NZ a few years ago. Such a mind! What is your connection to shifting baselines and fishing policy? My father (former commercial fisherman) is part of a recreational fishing group arguing that the goal of fish policy should be abundance not short-term profit. http://legasea.co.nz http://legasea.co.nz
- CalRobert 8y agoI don't have a strong connection to it, I just know that it's an apt illustration and we have photos for it - I doubt fishers today would turn away giant groupers. It's also discussed in a book I just read, Whittled Away, about Ireland's horrendous wildlife and fishery management (while pretty, virtually the whole island has been stripped of its wildlife to turn it in to livestock grazing). In short, there used to be a hell of a lot more fish, of different species, and the stocks we want to return to are levels from an already diminished time. Though it's got a lot to do with the EU's common fisheries policy, which was similarly awful, but has been improved somewhat since, with at least a ban on deep sea trawling.
- mads 8y agoAlso did anyone notice that they don’t clean off insects off their car as often as before? Just 10 years ago, when I used to commute 170km every day in my car, I would have to clean the windshield regularly. I think I cleaned it once the last year and I even travel further today...
- azinman2 8y agoCould the design of cars be the driving factor?
- zizee 8y agoSame car? Could improved aerodynamics play a part?
- mads 8y agoMight be it.. Ford Mondeo back then and an Opel Meriva today.
- NeedMoreTea 8y agoI noticed the effect motorcycling. With an aerodynamically unchanged helmet and headlight, riding mainly naked bikes. Last time I saw this crop up in a thread another comment claimed they actually were using the same car. Maybe 50 years of these rivers of metal boxes reliably taking out trillions of insects yearly has played a part too.
- johndough 8y agoI also observe less insects on my windshield, same car as 25 years ago.
- black-tea 8y agoYou drive too far. That's insane.
- paulddraper 8y agoTime wise though, it might be a faster commute than in Silicon Valley.
- Yetanfou 8y agoThey moved here, to our farm in Sweden. I just finished cutting and splitting a dead and partly rotten tree. The core of that tree was filled with a good approximation of soil which again was filled with earthworms. They were also slithering between the bark and the trunk in droves - this tree being partly rotten the bark was loose on the trunk - as if they were getting ready to evolve into treeworms. When it rains it is crawling with the things. Living in the forest and having an unpaved lot probably helps here.