5 ms·
I don't know how anyone over the age of 30 could write this headline with the word "could." I know there's data behind it, and that we have to be careful not to
by 30944836 4y ago
I don't know how anyone over the age of 30 could write this headline with the word "could." I know there's data behind it, and that we have to be careful not to assume things without the data but...
Have they been outside in the summer, in the midwest? In the mid-1990s you could nearly read a book by the light of lightning bugs. Now's nearly dark.
- cmrdporcupine 4y agoFunny, the last two summers here at my rural place in southern Ontario (basically the midwest) there's been so many fireflies. We used to have them here and there, but never like this. Anecdota, but.
- SoftTalker 4y agoSeeing a lot of them this spring here in the midwest US as well.
- myth_drannon 4y agoMontreal island subburbs, so many of them every summer.
- immmmmm 4y agoby some authors, this decline is 3 orders of magnitude faster than what is inferred from fossil records of the last extinction event. global warming might increase that by an additional 2 orders of magnitude. the good news is that it can still be partially reversed, if humanity acts quickly.
- Someone 4y agoI’m not claiming your conclusion is incorrect, but predator-prey systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotka–Volterra_equations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotka–Volterra_equations) can have long stretches of population decrease. A measured decrease, even a huge one lasting decades, need not be a a long term decline.
- 30944836 4y agoThank you for this. It is a reminder for me to think more long term than just my short life so far.
- gibolt 4y agoThe main predator is likely cars in this case. Those numbers won't be decreasing, and bug numbers likely won't be bouncing back
- throwaway1777 4y agoI was under the impression the main predator was insecticides.
- Someone 4y agoThis isn’t a simple two-species system. If insect population collapse were to cause a human population collapse, I think the number of cars (and wind turbines, and insecticides) would follow, possibly early enough to prevent full extinction of insects.
- lukas099 4y agoThe point was that the population is declining, not that it is long term.
- Someone 4y agoThe title of this article may make it seem so, but IMHO, it is incorrect, and the main message of the article is One in three firefly species in North America may be at risk of extinction, according to a study by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. The title of that paper (https://xerces.org/press/firefly-species-at-risk https://xerces.org/press/firefly-species-at-risk) is “One in Three North American Firefly Species Assessed May Be at Risk of Extinction”, so I think that’s not a misinterpretation from my side.
- bmitc 4y agoI haven’t seen a firefly since I was a kid. We used to catch and release them using glass jars.
- gnulinux 4y agoAnecdote but 2020 summer (covid summer) there were tons of fireflies in Boston. A lot more so than normal. I don't know how it was 10+ years ago though...
- metadaemon 4y agoI've been saying this for a while. I remember so many as a child, so it's only anecdotal, but there has been a very noticeable decline.
- annecdatta 4y ago
- mathattack 4y agoExperienced the same as a kid and can’t remember the last one I’ve seen.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]