Ghostly swamp will-O'-the-wisps may be explained by science
snexplores.org
snexplores.org
Anyways, an interesting nugget is buried in that article. It says that a reason will o the wisp may have been common in the past is because lantern flames may have ignited the gas, which seems like a decent explanation. People use electric light everywhere now.
I guess another issue could be that there's so much ambient lighting from street lights and light being reflected off clouds that it's simply too bright for us to see anything. People back in the day probably experienced a lot more completely black nights.
It's completely possible that will o the wisp will be a completely forgotten phenomenon in a couple more decades, since I don't know anyone under 80 who's reported seeing it, and kids probably don't even know of it now. And it makes me wonder if there are other phenomenons that ancient people were very aware of but no living person has ever seen.
Buy what strikes me is how completely it has become a fairy tale/fantasy trope. You'd talk about them the same way you'd talk about dragons or vampires. So the knowledge that there actually is a real underlying phenomenon seems to be vanishing.
Maybe it's simply that the scientific explanation is just so much more boring than all the "causes" people have speculated about in past centuries (spirits of nature, lost souls, etc).
You can tell an engaging story about a girl who was murdered and the corpse hidden in the swamp and who will reappear as a ghostly light to try and lead people to her murderers.
You cannot tell a similar story about self-igniting swamp gas.
Having grown up in the last century with camping and middle-of-nowhere road trips, I'm amazed by how many people have never seen the Milky Way (not just stars that are part of the Milky Way, but the splotchy stripe across the sky). The trends for light pollution and time spent away from cities suggest that it could become a forgotten experience just like the will o' the wisp.
Source: the sad death chamber of a jam jar of fireflies my youngest collected this year at a family get-together on the family farm. So it's pretty anecdotal, but they were everywhere along the highway as we drove there as well for like 2 whole states.
* People spending less time outside at night in general these days, bc indoors is where all the gadgets are
* When you do go outside at night, are your eyes going to be as dark-adapted as someone from say 1850 might have been? Shorter walks between brighter places these days could factor in.
* Swamps aren't as common as they used to be; particularly in the early 20th century in the US, swamps were frequently drained to 'improve' the land. Not as much decaying vegetation near at hand.
* Virtually everyone that dies these days is either chemically preserved, or cremated, so not as much decaying flesh in the cemeteries
[1] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24430/24430-h/24430-h.htm#V