Fireflies facing extinction due to habitat loss, pesticides and artificial light

I haven't explored my feelings on it but this lines up with my limited observations and makes me incredibly sad.

I keep hoping they are just in a cycle that lasts a few years and I'll see them pop up again soon.

I've been watching fireflies on my street for decades, and I have seen no decline - they show up at the same time of year, in the same numbers.

I was worried about what street lighting was doing to them (since I mainly saw them on the street), until one day I happened to be walking in a backyard with some huge trees, and saw more fireflies in those trees than I've ever seen before.

The trees were in a dark backyard and the fireflies seemed to be doing extremely well - the trees were just full of them.

And since fireflies eat sap from tree roots, I think human lighting activities don't really harm them too much.

My takeway: If you want to see how fireflies are doing, don't just walk down the street and look, make a point of looking in backyards, and unbuilt areas.

Suburbs and rural areas probably host large numbers of them. (But urban areas probably have few if any.)

And this is another reason why we need half (and possibly less than half) the number of humans we have on earth.

Yes, we can carry more humans, but the cost is way too high.