For many of us, the very idea of protecting our earth can trigger feelings of worry, anxiety, and even helplessness. After all, our best household-level efforts to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle can seem piddling, given the current pace of climate change. But recently, in an effort to understand what more we mere mortals can do, I took a closer look at the Citizen Science movement. I was blown away by what I found.
You – yes, you (and your grandparents, young children, and everyone in between) – already have the time, ability, resources, and necessary skills – to make serious contributions to environmental science. If you doubt me, please hop onto SciStarter.org, the nonprofit site that’s on a mission to “bring together millions of curious and concerned people in the world… to engage in real-world research questions in collaboration with researchers, communities, organizations, and companies…”
Imagine that, starting today, you can begin a collaboration with a group of professional scientists. (You don't have to imagine. You can just do it.)
At this extraordinary site, I discovered near-infinite opportunities to collect and share much-needed scientific data with environmental scientists who are tackling issues that matter to me. SciStarter makes it so easy and yes, I’ll say it, empowering. Within seconds, for example, I was able to search for a current project related to pollinator protection, pollution, and agricultural practices. It's a site so well built to make participation accessible that one of their search filters allows you to look only for those activities you can complete "on a lunch break," "on a walk," or "at a sports stadium." There, I found initiatives that I – or anyone - could squeeze into our very busy lives. Consider the Globe at Night study. It’s a light pollution study asking only that you spend a few minutes (not hours) each month, staring at the night sky to compare how many constellations you see with a star map provided to you, then submit your observations through a download.
Or, if you have as much as a half-hour, maybe you’d be interested in Buzzy Bee, a pollinator study sponsored by the nonprofit, Zooniverse. It’s all online, where you'll watch videos collected from cameras in “three areas of tropical rainforest in Cameroon and Gabon,” and count bee “flower visitors” by simply clicking the correct icon. For anyone who will spend time near Minnesota's lakes this spring and early summer, Trumpeter Swan Watch is a near-perfect one-time commitment. Just sign up, keep your eyes peeled for a swan sighting, then submit your sighting. And boom! You're a citizen scientist, too.
If, like so many of us Citizens of Planet Earth, you’re eager to do more, I hope you’ll join me in choosing just one science project. It feels like an opportunity to move past the hand-wringing and into action that makes a real difference.