Good science has a conscience, tells the truth and teaches responsible behavior

Please watch The Last Firefly video




Then consider this:

Good science and education has a conscience, tells the truth, and teaches responsible behavior. 
It seems to me that there are some people making excuses for not doing good science or good education.

Good science has a conscience, tells the truth and teaches responsible behavior.  If those who are conducting the MOS FFW project want to know if fireflies are disappearing and to determine the reason, then it is very important to collect and identify specimens.  It is also important to make photographic and video records of fireflies dying, especially after cities, towns and neighborhoods are sprayed by oil-based chemical foggers. 

The systematic extermination of fireflies and other insects is being conducted under the cloak of darkness and millions upon millions of dollars is being made in the process by big oil and chemical companies.  Millions of fireflies are dying and you are not even collecting specimens to identify the victims and are not collecting photographs and video to show to the world the exterminations of fireflies. Plus the toxic chemicals being used in the concentrations they are being applied may have adverse effects upon the health and welfare of people who inadvertently are exposed to these toxic chemicals.

Wake up!  Yes, fireflies are disappearing.  Yes, you must collect specimens as that is the best way to document the extermination of firefly species.  Yes, photographs and videos can easily record the effect of toxic chemicals upon fireflies as a result of exposure to air polluted by oil-based chemical foggers.  Not asking that everyone or a portion of people collect specimens and make photographic or video records of the extermination of fireflies, or to show what areas have healthy populations, is neglecting your responsibility as good educators to the community. Indeed, because you are conducting an educational program, asking for everyone to participate, that means you do have a responsibility to the community to tell the truth. You can only tell the truth by making an accurate, true and verifiable record, by collecting the physical evidence to show and prove what is happening to fireflies.  Anything less is a lie!

If you are interested in the truth, you would want everyone to collect firefly specimens, to make photographs and videos showing fireflies before and after oil-based chemical foggers go through their cities, towns or neighborhoods.  Then you would want people to collect and submit specimens, that a record may be made of the extermination of fireflies which might also serve as evidence to the cause of their death and demonstrate conclusively why fireflies in some areas are disappearing in large numbers.

By failing to do good science, by not collecting specimens, by not collecting a photographic and video record, by not even asking people to collect and observe fireflies to see if they are exhibiting unusual behavior, teachers and instructors are acting irresponsibly.  This is very bad science and it is very bad education because it is teaching everyone how NOT to be a good observer and how NOT to take a close look at what they are observing.  When seen from afar, a flash in the dark may hide much true!

If you want to teach about fireflies and tell the truth with respect to their disappearance, you must collect specimens and observe them up close and personal.  You must record any unusual behavior, by observing and watching for that behavior, and by recording it through photographs and videos.  Specimens of dying fireflies must also be collected and preserved for the record. 

By recording only "firefly sightings" from afar you open the door to a BIG error.  You can have the situation where fireflies emerge from the ground and may be sighted only to then rapidly expire due to exposure to chemicals on their maiden flights.  Were people only to collect the fireflies they could see if they are healthy and take photographs or make videos to record that fact.  Those fireflies that are dying would be good to preserve and identify and perhaps analysis to show what killed them.  This would not do any harm because whatever is killing the fireflies has already done the harm.

Given firefly populations in some areas are being exterminated, there are not going to be fireflies in those areas to sight in the future, so the evidence one could be gathering to prove why they are dying is not going to be there tomorrow and it is not even being collected today.  Because what is killing fireflies may also be harmful to human beings, to be investigating the disappearance of fireflies without taking a very close look, without documenting the behavior of dying fireflies, and without even collecting a single specimen is not only BAD science, it is unconscionable!

Science without conscience is what the Nazis did to the Jews, experimenting on them because they were regarded as less than human.  To ask people to watch fireflies on the premise that you want to determine if they are vanishing, when all it takes to see the truth is to collect and observe specimens, begs the question, why do not you want everyone to know the truth?  Why do not you want people to collect and observe specimens to see if they are exhibiting unusual behavior?  Why do not you want people to identify specimens which are dying so that a record of their demise may be made and/or so that this may be had for the purpose of evidence as to the cause of their death and destruction?  Why are you trying to hide the truth just by showing firefly sightings and not recording the killing of fireflies or reporting on those responsible for the mass extermination of fireflies?

The MOS FFW is bad science and is not teaching responsible behavior.  You need to be collecting specimens and observing to see if they are healthy.  A record needs to be made of fireflies which are dying or exhibiting unusual behavior.  Specimens of fireflies need to be made for the record so that later those who may be accountable may be brought to justice.  Unless this is done you are not teaching responsible behavior, you are telling everyone to go out, have a good time, enjoy watching the fireflies ... because tomorrow all the fireflies may be gone, so this is your last chance!  Don't worry, when they are all gone we will report there are NO FIREFLIES!

I hope you can see the stupidity of such a study.  You are asking people to watch the disappearance of fireflies and take no action to stop the extermination!  This is like watching the extermination of the Jews or other genocide and taking no action to stop it.  Of course fireflies are not people, but this analogy is warranted because what is killing the fireflies may be unhealthy for people as well.  Hence, by not collecting specimens, by not taking a close look at firefly behavior, by not recording the dying of fireflies or any unusual behavior they may be exhibiting after a short flight, you are teaching everyone how to be apathetic, irresponsible, insensitive, uncaring, blind to the truth, and a consumer of whatever products municipalities are using and spewing into the atmosphere so the big oil and chemical companies can get rich!

One can only conclude that the MOS FFW program is therefore either totally unaware of what is going on to cause the disappearance of fireflies, that they are looking the other way and asking everyone else to do the same, or that they are in a state of denial, not wanting to accept any responsibility or urge others to take responsibility for what is happening.  Therefore I repeat, this is both BAD science and BAD education.

If you want to do good science you need to be asking everyone to collect specimens and see if they are healthy.  Fireflies which are dying may certainly be preserved and identified for the record without doing any harm to the existing populations.  This is much like donating one's body or organs to science after a catastrophic accident.  At least some good might then come from the loss of life.

That is basically what I am asking.  If anyone wants to know why fireflies are dying and disappearing, collect specimens   and take a closer look.  Make photographic and/or video records of any unusual behavior or dying fireflies. Preserve specimens so that you may have them identified later.  Of course if while you are out watching fireflies you see a fogger coming, spraying clouds of oil-based toxic chemicals into the air, run for cover, go inside, or put a gas mask on!  I don't want you to get sick or die too!

Certainly healthy fireflies once observed and photographed may be released if one is worried about doing them harm.  But fireflies which are collected and shown to be sick and dying might be of more use to the living if they are preserved and identified, a record being made for posterity.  When one sees what is really happening to fireflies, when one collects specimens and watches them slowly die after being exposed to toxins in the air, perhaps it will teach people a lesson no text books can teach -- and perhaps this lesson will help save human lives in the future!

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