I always just chalked it up to the "there were more thunderstorms when I was a kid" phenomenon (that a large number of people will remember there being more thunderstorms when they were children, despite studies suggesting the number of thunderstorms has remained constant).
It's not really surprising to me though, at least in my neighborhood in Toronto there has been massive urbanization; there are no more wild fields. Parks and even hydro fields (land under power lines) are being mowed bi-weekly, destroying any chance of native plant biodiversity. I haven't seen a mosquito in literally years. But to be fair once you leave the city, not much has changed; insects are still plentiful.
I'd be wary to draw any conclusions from this study, since the areas the researchers set up their monitoring stations may have experienced a similar level of urbanization.
> I always just chalked it up to the "there were more thunderstorms when I was a kid" phenomenon
That's a thing? I thought that since the house I grew up in at the time didn't have A/C and had a leaky roof just meant that thunderstorms were more important to the family. Not having A/C meant that the windows were open on hot days when thunderstorms were more likely, then had to hurry and close them when one happened. The leaky roof meant get some buckets and towels.
Merely conjecturing; if memory recall is correlated with the intensity of emotions during events, kids with their heightened sense of wonder are probably more likely to remember rare events like thunderstorms.
It's not really surprising to me though, at least in my neighborhood in Toronto there has been massive urbanization; there are no more wild fields. Parks and even hydro fields (land under power lines) are being mowed bi-weekly, destroying any chance of native plant biodiversity. I haven't seen a mosquito in literally years. But to be fair once you leave the city, not much has changed; insects are still plentiful.
I'd be wary to draw any conclusions from this study, since the areas the researchers set up their monitoring stations may have experienced a similar level of urbanization.