From ClimateREALISM
By Linnea Lueken
A recent post by The Guardian titled “Firefly species may blink out as US seeks to list as threatened for first time,” says the US Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing a species of firefly native to the Northeastern United States as endangered extinction due to climate change. This is wrong, or at least the focus on the climate element at the beginning of the article is wrong. The listed threat is not climate effects, and the US government’s proposal even acknowledges that human development poses the true threat.
The article describes a species of firefly called the Bethany Beach firefly, found in the coastal areas of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, stating that it “faces an increasing threat to its natural habitat due to events related to climate change” including sea level rise. over time and “depleting the groundwater aquifer.”
It’s important to note first that the article acknowledges the problem sea level rise is projected to have on firefly habitats “by the end of the century” — about 76 years from now. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), fireflies are only found in freshwater marshes near coastal dune environments. The FWS release was more specific, and said between 76-95 percent of that habitat could be lost to tidal flooding by 2100… according to climate models.
This may be true, but it is not clear that these habitats will be lost forever due to sea level rise, and not just slowly recede inland over decades. The dune environment is by default very volatile, changing every tide, and left to nature it will grow and recede. The freshwater marshes (swales) associated with them also change seasonally.
Climate Realism has on several occasions pointed out that the rise of the sea is hardly accelerating the danger that the media makes out so, here, here, and here, for example on the East Coast specifically.
Interestingly, the Guardian article itself is quick to cite a factor causing sea level rise on the East Coast that is also destroying the freshwater environment fireflies need, and that is “depleting groundwater aquifers.” These aquifers on the East Coast are not declining because of climate change, they are declining because of an increasing population that requires more water withdrawals. This causes land subsidence, increasing the relative rate of sea level rise in some areas. Delaware, for example, sees about 1.7 millimeters of land subsidence per year, which adds up to 7 inches over 100 years.
The crux of the problem will come in the article, where the Guardian finally mentions the sudden changes in the habitat of fireflies that actually affect their survival in the short term, and that is “the growing threat from coastal development and light pollution, which The latter can interfere with the insects’ ability to use bioluminescent lights to communicate with each other.
Looking at human population trends for three states with Bethany Beach fireflies; Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, all three have experienced explosive population growth over the past few decades.
“Over the past few years,” reports the Guardian, “the Bethany Beach fireflies have been displaced and populations decimated by development in coastal marshes.”
This is obviously not due to climate change, and it is cynical and misleading when the article, and the FWS report, tries to make a connection that even though climate change is the driver behind the decline in the number of fireflies. FWS went as far as trying to claim intensifying heavy storms are also projected to cause more firefly habitat damage, but the data just does not support that hypothesis.
The Guardian and FWS would do better to tell the truth up front than to allow it to be buried at the bottom of the article, where fewer readers will see it. It’s a lie and it doesn’t help the fireflies of Bethany Beach that they supposedly care about.
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