Fireflies are disappearing but we can save them in our own backyards. This National Geographic article is beautiful for it's photos but it may have a paywall. Here's a free one from Firefly.org, summarized below:
Turn off outside lights at night.
Fireflies use their flashing lights to signal each other, attract mates
and warn of danger. While the science is still preliminary, it’s likely
that human light pollution can disrupt their flashes—making it harder
for fireflies to find mates and breed. This leads to fewer fireflies mating
and smaller numbers in subsequent generations. You can make your yard
a haven for fireflies by turning off exterior and garden lights, and drawing
your blinds at night so that interior light doesn’t brighten your yard
too much.
Let logs and leaf litter accumulate around outside of your yard.
Some species of firefly larvae grow up in rotten logs and the litter
that accumulates beneath the forest canopy. To encourage their growth,
plant some trees on your property. If you have trees in your yard, consider
leaving some natural litter around them to give firefly larvae a place
to grow.
Create water features in your landscape.
Most species of fireflies have one thing in common: they thrive around
standing water and marshy areas. Ponds, streams and rivers can all provide
good habitats for fireflies, but even a small depression full of water
can cause them to congregate. Build a small pond or divert a small stream
to run through your property, and it’s more likely you’ll see fireflies
at night. Chemically treated swimming pools aren’t a good substitute;
fireflies are believed to eat the smaller insects, grubs and snails that
thrive in natural ponds and streams, and these don’t live in chlorinated
environments.
Avoid use of pesticides, especially lawn chemicals.
It’s likely that chemical pesticides and weed killers may also have a
negative effect on firefly populations. Fireflies and their larvae may
come into contact with other insects that have been poisoned, or they
may ingest the poisons from plants that have been sprayed. Avoid using
pesticides on your lawn and you may boost firefly populations.
Use natural fertilizers.
Arrgghhh
Alternating hemispheres to avoid extreme heat may not be an option if this trend continues. South America is hot in their current winter season:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/08/02/southamerica-record-winter-heat-argentina-chile/
@freya and @raincloud
Ok, that is just insane.
Our 31 days of 110 and above, ( I believe 5 of those were 118 and 119 degree days) is crazy, but 100 temps during winter is shocking. AZ doesn't even get 100 temps during winter. Ever. (yet?). I thought I was done being shocked every day by things.
It is like living with Trump as president and being shocked each day by his behavior, waking up checking my phone first thing in the morning to see what havoc he created overnight to see if he had completely broken our country while Tweeting.
Now it's hearing weather calamity after weather calamity.
I am concerned about the moment it stops being shocking and just...normal.
It is like knowing a train wreck is about to happen and being forced to watch it occur.
I keep thinking that this is the global WAKE UP year on climate. All areas of the globe effected to the point that few will be denying there is a global problem. This is good in the sense that we will realize we are all connected and all need to be part of the solution, finally.
I believe there will be some good solutions and mitigative innovation which will be developed which is a positive. But life will as we know it will change.
Some countries are beginning to wake up!
Italy is experience a horrible climate summer including hail that was over 7 inches in diameter.
“There are three elements that make Italy one of the most fragile places in the world,” said Mercalli. “One is that the Mediterranean is smaller in size compared with other oceans and is warming up more quickly. The second is that we are located in between the tropical climate of Africa and temperate climate of northern Europe – the heat in Sicily is now more like Africa, while northern Italy is like Sicily was 50 years ago. The third is the crowded Mediterranean – any extreme event risks a heavy impact in inhabited areas.”
As more violent storms were forecast to engulf northern Italy on Friday and over the weekend, the president, Sergio Mattarella, joined counterparts from Spain, Greece, Croatia and Slovenia in demanding urgent action from international leaders to tackle the climate crisis. “There is no more time to waste, no more time to compromise for political or economic reasons,” they wrote.
Ice melt from the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau AK cause the Mendenhall lake to overflow into the Mendenhall rive Sunday, causing the river to overflow and wash away homes.
I canoed on that lake about 19 years ago. It's a beautiful lake and glacier. Even at that time they were discussing how fast the glacier was melting. I hope nobody was on it when this happened.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/07/us/alaska-flooding-mendenhall-river-glacier/index.html
Biden is coming to Arizona tonight and will head to the Grand Canyon tomorrow to speak. I had no idea. This statement (below) is likely the purpose as well the critical Colorado River issues. It is long as time to protect the area around this Grand Canyon from mining.
The Center for Western Priorities released a statement Friday saying that Biden may designate 1.1 million acres surrounding the Grand Canyon as the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument during his visit.
According to the Center of Western Priorities, the designation, as proposed by the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition, would protect the area from uranium mining, helping to safeguard underground aquifers and critical drinking water supplies for nearby communities.
https://www.abc15.com/news/state/president-joe-biden-to-visit-grand-canyon-tuesday
@jeanne-mayell thanks for this Jeanne. James Hansen is my hero. He is so brave, honest and committed to telling it how it is.
I feel reassured with your words "We are optimistic and believe that people will adapt (Jeanne Mayell)" and agree with what you say: I feel the time has come to prepare homes and make plans for the best ways to adapt.
So here are some of the adaptations we are using for our home here in the mountains of southern Europe:
Although my husband does not like to talk to me about climate change because it causes stress, I do talk to him about it and we are preparing to adapt despite his stress and resistance to talk about it. I guess I have to think of preparing because we currently work and live in a country in Europe that is very much below sea level (with a government that is doing very little to stop emissions). My husband and I are making our second home, that we chose especially because its built well above sea level, "extreme weather proof".
The walls of our home are made of thick stone (to withstand wind and fire), our gutters have been replaced with wider gutters to deal with the extreme rain fall (that was causing flooding in our downstairs rooms), we have installed a cooling system and we are planting lots of trees on the fields around us. We are planning to move into this home and grow our own vegetables. For this we have to know how to grow vegetables in conditions of hot temperatures and little water- we are in the process of learning! Luckily our neighbors are farmers who use traditional (ancient) farming techniques (no pesticides, machines or mass farming). When it comes to the fruit trees for instance, only trees that survive the hot summer will grow here, that's figs, nut trees and the local pear tree. The mountain farmers around us are teaching us how to water trees here. They say: "don't spoil the trees by giving them too much water. They have to grow in the heat and those that survive are meant to grow here, those that don't, let them go".
I have been observing the weather here every season, on every trip we make out here to the mountain. When there is extreme rain I observe where the rain flows around the house (the roads turn into rivers). The flow of water stays far away from the house (there are no mud slides because the house is not on a slope). The fire that came close to our house went around the house (why, I still don't understand). It is a house that has been standing here for 300 years or more. So I guess nature's seasons live in harmony with it? We shall see. But I have a mind set now that climate will be visible to us wherever we are, there is no place to escape it. You can only observe nature, observe the house and see if it will withstand the change. Thanks Jeanne for inspiring me to think of adaptation to climate change and to prepare our family home for it.
This is a long article that was published in the NYT yesterday about how clean energy is being deployed faster in the US than anyone expected. It's a gift article, so you all should be able to read it for free:
"Across the country, a profound shift is taking place that is nearly invisible to most Americans. The nation that burned coal, oil and gas for more than a century to become the richest economy on the planet, as well as historically the most polluting, is rapidly shifting away from fossil fuels. A similar energy transition is already well underway in Europe and elsewhere. But the United States is catching up, and globally, change is happening at a pace that is surprising even the experts who track it closely."
As the article states, fossil fuels are still the main source of energy in the US, but we are clearly in a transition away from them. There is lots of interesting data in the piece, and many reasons for hope that we are in fact learning and adapting as a species.