There has been a 69% decrease in wildlife since 1970. Even recreational fishing is considerably harder than it was when I was a kid, despite lots of stocking efforts.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/69-average-decline-in-wildlife-populations-since-1970-says-new-wwf-report

[–] Zron@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago

This is how I convinced my grandfather climate change was real.

For the passed 50 years, he’s gone up to his cabin and fished.

Over the passed 10 years, he’s caught less and less fish.

When I was a kid, you could hardly put your rod in the water before you’d get something to bite. We’d through back a dozen fish before keeping one that was bigger. Now you’re lucky to get a single fish in several hours.

I asked him about the bugs, and he admitted there were less bugs in the windscreen then anytime in his life. And what do freshwater fish eat a lot of? Insect larvae and dead insects on the water. No food means no fish.

I think he finally realized just how fucked everything has to be for so many bugs to die off that fish start to die, and all the animals in the area that eat those fish. He kind of had an existential crisis, but unfortunately has ended up with the mindset “it’s gonna suck for you and your kids, but I’ll be dead before it’s really my problem”

But at least now he acknowledges climate change is real.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

I remember this pond we went to, they stocked it with bass but you couldn't catch it because the second your line hit the water a damn suicidal bluegill would snatch up the hook, bait or no. My dad was trying to teach me to fish and I was having the time of my life. He, on the other hand, was pissed as hell because the damn bluegills were getting in the way of him finding us some bass for dinner. Also, apparently I was supposed to learn that fishing involved patience but we picked the wrong spot for that. I did learn catch and release, and maybe I got a pet fish I dunno.

That pond burned down a few years ago. Climate change is fun.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 33 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's those little things that scare me the most. Insects make up a large amount of the bottom tier of the food chain and are a necessary part of the reproductive cycle of a lot of plants. This is a much clearer indicator of how deep in the shit we are with climate change.

[–] kromem@lemmy.world 29 points 7 months ago

For me it's the oceans.

That's the kind of cascading changes that are going to rapidly fuck shit up.

Just a bit too acidic or warm and we can kiss our asses goodbye. And it's pretty much at that point already.

Enjoy things while they last. We probably have less time than we think.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Birds decreased a bunch it seems, but the one that stood out to me was squirrels. I seem to remember there being a lot more when I grew up. They were chasing each other playing in trees running on rooftops everywhere. Now I see them playing once in a while. Either the squirrels all got Netflix, depressed, and repressed like us humans and not want to play anymore, or they are dying off.