A recent post by The Guardian titled “Firefly species may blink out as US seeks to list it as endangered for first time,” claims that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing a firefly species native to the North Eastern United States as endangered because of climate change. This is false, or at least the focus on the climate element at the start of the article is false. The threats listed are not climate effects, and the U.S. government proposal even acknowledges that human development poses the true threat.
The article describes a firefly species called the Bethany Beach firefly, which is found in coastal parts of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, claiming that it is “facing increasing dangers to its natural habitat because of climate change-related events” including sea level rise over time and “lowering groundwater aquifers.”
It is important to note first that the article admits the sea level rise issue is projected to impact firefly habitat “by the end of the century” – about 76 years from now. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the firefly is only found in freshwater marshes near coastal dune environments. The FWS release is more specific, and says between 76-95 percent of those habitats may be lost to high-tide flooding by 2100… according to climate models.
This might be true, but it is not clear that those habitats will be lost forever because of rising sea levels, and not just pushed back inland gradually over the course of those intervening decades. Dune environments are by default extremely volatile, changing with every tide, and left to nature will grow and recede. The freshwater marshes (swales) associated with them likewise change by the season.
Climate Realism has on several occasions pointed out that sea level rise is hardly the accelerating danger that the media make it out to be, here, here, and here, for examples on the East Coast specifically.
Amazingly, the Guardian article itself quickly mentions a contributing factor to relative sea level rise on the East coast that is also damaging the freshwater environments the firefly needs, and that is “lowering groundwater aquifers.” These aquifers on the East Coast are not lowering due to climate change, they are lowering due to increasing populations necessitating greater water withdrawals. This causes the land to sink, increasing the relative rate of sea level rise in some areas. Delaware, for example, is seeing about 1.7 millimeters of land subsidence each year, which adds up to about 7 inches over 100 years.
The real crux of the issue comes later in the article, where the Guardian finally mentions the abrupt changes to the firefly’s habitat that actually impact its survival on the short term, and that is “growing threats from coastal development and light pollution, the latter of which can interfere with the insects’ ability to use their bioluminescent lights to communicate with each other.” The Guardian points out that the Bethany Beach firefly only flashes in full darkness, which is becoming less available due to light pollution from housing development on the coast.
Looking at human population trends for the three states that have Bethany Beach fireflies; Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, all three have seen exploding population growth over the past few decades.
“Within the past several years,” the Guardian reports, “Bethany Beach fireflies have been displaced and populations wiped out because of development on coastal wetlands.”
This is obviously not due to climate change, and it comes across as cynical and misleading when the article, and the FWS report, try to make that connection as though climate change is the driver behind declining firefly numbers. The FWS went so far as to try to claim intensifying severe storms were also projected to cause more firefly habitat destruction, but the data simply does not support that hypothesis.
The Guardian and the FWS would be better served telling the truth upfront instead of allowing it to be buried at the bottom of an article, which fewer readers will end up seeing. It’s deceptive and doesn’t help the Bethany Beach firefly they allegedly care about.
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So at next year’s July 4th party will I have to worry about the grand
children being arrested for catching lightning bugs in the back yard?
Don’t let the “Endangered Species Cops” catch them. 🙂
Reminds me of one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.
I grew up in very rural Northwest Virginia (several miles outside Front Royal, VA, a place that was once called Shenandoah Farms). One summer evening in the late 60’s (I was 6 or 7 years old), my mother was driving my sister and me home. As we rounded a corner, a 5-10 acre field next to the Shenandoah River was absolutely filled with fireflies! Thousands of them, maybe tens of thousands. We pulled over and just watched for several minutes, wishing we had a camera.
My Grandmother told me about a similar experience she saw riding electric railway that ran from Milwaukee to East Troy http://www.trainweb.org/twerhs/tmerl.html
I got treated badly by a 2nd grade teacher. This was in a Kansas grade school in Witchita Kansas. I had lived the first 6 years of my life up on the Ozark Plateau, where fireflies were plentiful and bright. The teacher asked us kids if any of us had ever seen a firefly (no fireflies in Wichita apparently). I raised my hand and said I had, and they were so bright to leave a streak in my eye. She scoffed and called me a liar.
I have distinct memories of fireflies very close to me and so bright as to leave an afterimage in my young eyes
possibly not that soon
All wildlife species go through cycles- often for unknown reasons. To say it’s due to climate change without proof is bad science and bad journalism.
But.. climate change bringeth and climate change taketh away as it always has these past 4.5 billion years or so. It’s that sciencie thingy – evolution by natural selection. Odd how people obsessed with “The Science” know and understand so little about it.
Will all life on Earth cease if the last firefly is extinguished? Humanity managed to soldier on despite the last of the Mohicans – and no cries from distressed kings: A dodo, a dodo, my kingdom for a dodo!
In my neck of the woods, apart from.a brief encounter in France, I have survived my entire life without fireflies.
Fireflies are neat- especially if you’re stoned. 🙂
Not many this year. They’ll be back.
” wildlife species go through cycles- often for unknown reasons”
Surely it is known that the biggest threat to our native species is invasive species.
The ash trees in our southern Ontario forests have been annihilated in just a few decades by the emerald ash borer, and our native species of ladybugs extirpated by the invasive Asian ladybug.
The list is long.
https://www.ontario.ca/page/nine-spotted-lady-beetle-government-response-statement#section-
Yuh, I know- been a forester for 50 years. It’s often said to be due to climate change. Some might be- but mostly these species are brought over here- on purpose or not. Once here, it’s tough to stop them. The one that drives me crazy is Oriental Bittersweet. This past wet summer- I found them all over my 1 acre of lawns, garden and forest. I see it along highways all over Wokeachusetts. Just trying to kill them by poison or ripping them out won’t work in the long run. Perhaps genetic engineers will find a way to sterilize them.
Our guide in Hawaii stopped us to admire the lushness of the valley were hiking through. Indeed, it was a gorgeous panorama of tropical flowers palms and other greenery. After a few minutes he explained to us that every life form in that vista was non-native to Hawaii.
The land is also sinking for geological reasons.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152452/americas-sinking-east-coast
Why have so many people stopped telling the truth?
Sean, I think it’s because the only thing Climate Change endangers is telling the truth.
I think some people (at least the unethical) will say whatever they are paid to say even if they know it is a lie that is likely to cause harm. The love of money is the root of all evil.
Starts at the top.
https://x.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1842630773423345882
” The Guardian points out that the Bethany Beach firefly only flashes in full darkness, which is becoming less available due to light pollution …”
Can we expect that a variant that will flash in less dark nights to become prevalent? Search-up Peppered Moth (Biston betularia) for relevant background – scroll to ‘evolution’.
Ecoloons are like Creationists – they believe the Earth was created by some deliberate design with just so many species and so many of each and it hasn’t changed since, must always relain so and can only change by divine intervention of their god.
While there are places where rising sea level changes the habitat, that is of course not new. As pointed out I would model (speculate with inadequate data) which proves that development would be the main victim. However, much of the outer Virginia coast and lower Chesapeake Bay are ‘protected’ by the Delmarva peninsula where long ago a Hog Island settlement, and a few later houses on other islands were abandoned, at least the last time I checked lots of years ago. Some places benefit depending on the value one puts on various species. Coastal prairie in Texas, for example, has been increasingly taken over by refuges which whooping crane biologists suggest might increase their habitat which is being temporarily lost elsewhere. Also they do adapt and ate snakes during a drought.
I was just watching egrets trying to forage among dead mangroves from the 2021 freeze which reminded me that Du Pratz (1774) in his History of Louisiana remarked about mangroves being too thick for access. This was during the Little Ice Age but not certain about the dates and there is both a Bay de Mongles (Mangrove Bay) and a Hackberry Lake miles inland in the Louisiana marsh.
Don’t know about insects but taxonomists are having a field day with the new molecular genetics which will be helpful once the fad settles down. How old is Bethany Beach?
Whether or not they failed depends on public perception. Their goal is propaganda, so if very few read to the bottom of the article, it wasn’t a failure.
Trump, when he becomes President should introduce a law, which they have discussed in the UK, of ‘AN EXPECTATION OF CANDOR’ and, the bigger the lie (and cost to the country) the bigger the sentence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_biodiversity
99 percent! Worse yet, MORE than 99 percent!
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? It could proclaim poodles “endangered species”, then demand that people must sterilize poodles, and all this would be nothing but consistent application of their rules. It was on the leading edge of Circus World long ago.
https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/save-the-habitat-kill-the-turtles/
https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/tortoise-breeding-endangers-fish-wildlife-jobs/
It is important to note anything in the Guardian is 6th form student drivel.
It seems highly probable that the only reason for their concern is the chance to push a political agenda. The fireflies are irrelevant.
The Guardian is disgraceful, the US Fish and Wildlife Service should have its budget cut regularly until it can be shown to be an honest organization.They are a stubborn lot my guess is they would become a skeleton organization before they would accept we are serious. They are a disgrace.
In the past couple of decades the number of lightning bugs I have around my house have increased greatly. I admit there has been a decrease the past two years. But we had two hard freezes and a drought which can explain it.
The Grauniad should stay away from Climate Alarmist News and concentrate on its main use which is wrapping fish and chips.
I ate one in 1975…. guess I’m in trouble.