Citizen science One person can make a global difference

[Music]

have you ever found yourself chest deep

in swamp water

with the snapping turtles cottonmouths

and alligators swimming past you

what about spending your free time

catching bugs with a plastic spoon

no just me we’ll get to that story

but first i’d better do some explaining

it

all starts with citizen science

according to national geographic citizen

science is the practice of public

participation and collaboration

in scientific research to increase

scientific knowledge

volunteers members of the general public

collect

and analyze data relating to the natural

world

the list of ways volunteers can

contribute is pretty extensive

it could be a group of bird watchers

whose sightings are used to track

migratory patterns

or it could be people who count insects

as part of a pollinator conservation

effort this method of collaboration

allows scientists to obtain a large

amount of data

in a scope that would otherwise be

impossible due to time

geographic or resource constraints

my first experience with citizen science

was back in elementary school

when my family decided to get involved

with georgia adopt a stream

a volunteer program that monitors water

quality

clearly i was not too excited about

getting wet

the type of monitoring we chose to learn

was called macroinvertebrate monitoring

which uses the abundance and diversity

of tiny organisms like bugs and larvae

to indicate the overall health of the

stream

we quickly learned that this involves

collecting water samples

and then using a plastic spoon to find

and catch the macroinvertebrates

which is actually very difficult because

they are quite fast

we monitored the health of our creek for

years after that

and our data collected by us in our

backyard

was used by the georgia department of

natural resources

to help inform water policy decisions

for the entire state

action is critical right now because the

condition of our environment is

deteriorating

in the past year alone wildfires have

become more frequent

from the years 2000 to 2018 wildfires

burned more than twice the land area per

year

than in the 15 years prior and according

to the national

oceanic and atmospheric administration

hurricanes are increasing in frequency

and intensity

due to rising temperatures and sea

levels

scientists cannot tackle these issues

alone

each of us as individuals can have an

impact on our own community

and then if every community around the

world participates

it can have a compounding effect and

ultimately

a global impact for example

observations and data related to plants

and animals

gathered by nearly 2 million citizen

science volunteers on the site nature’s

notebook

have contributed to 17 different

peer-reviewed scientific publications

citizen science creates a bi-directional

flow of knowledge

in which we help inform researchers so

that they can help inform us

citizen science also has the capacity to

resolve environmental justice issues

and empower communities to make change

these benefits can be seen through the

case of love canal

new york love canal

was a bustling working-class community

with hundreds of houses and a school

unbeknownst to the residents the

neighborhood was built

directly on top of 21 000 tons of toxic

industrial waste

that was placed there in the 1940s and

50s by a local chemical company

in 1978 a record amount of rainfall

disturbed the ground and the corroding

drum containers of toxic waste

broke through the ground right into

people’s backyards

trees and gardens turned black and died

children returned from playing with

burns on their hands and faces

and later studies found that there were

abnormally high levels

of birth defects miscarriages and

cancers in this community

this type of environmental injustice is

actually not uncommon

in working class communities but citizen

science can empower communities to take

charge

and use their collective power to make

change

in love canal a resident by the name of

lois gibbs

led a group of residents in the love

canal homeowners association

and organized a series of protests

rallies and other methods of community

organizing

to pressure authorities to take

appropriate action

these measures worked and president

jimmy carter in an unprecedented act

used federal emergency funds to move the

residents and begin to clean the site

lois gibbs and the other love canal

residents were practicing an early form

of citizen science

where they noticed environmental

abnormalities in their community

and reported them this is a prime

example of

our half of the bi-directional flow of

knowledge and how citizen science can

level the playing field when it comes to

issues of environmental injustice

if this situation had occurred in the

present day and they had access to all

of the modern citizen science tools

they could have taken direct

measurements of the pollutants in their

water and soil as soon as they suspected

a problem

then all of the protests and rallies and

media stunts to get authorities to come

in and test would have been

unnecessary and appropriate action could

have been taken sooner

like lois gibbs did we all have the

ability to take action to make

environmental changes in our own

communities

and sometimes that means being chest

deep in swamp water

here i am with my mentor for my senior

project where i spent a year at a local

nature park back home in augusta

with snapping turtles in the cotton

mouth and the alligators

counting bugs to monitor water quality

and reporting my data to georgia adopt a

stream

in this past semester i was an intern

with the upper oconee watershed network

right here in athens

and the results for my testing were

given to georgia adopt a stream

to add to the statewide picture of the

health of our waterways

my experiences with citizen science set

me on a path towards my current academic

and career goals in the environmental

field

but the beauty about citizen science is

that anyone can participate

even you whatever your motivation

background or interest is everyone can

gain something from engaging in this

type of activity

and don’t worry you don’t have to get

chest deep in swamp water to participate

some great places to start your journey

with citizen science

are bird watching with nest watch

amphibian counting with frog watch usa

or stream monitoring with georgia adopt

a stream

and you can find even more options at

citizenscience.gov

you too can be a scientist and

contribute to the protection of the

environment

take a step outside global change starts

right in your backyard

thank you

you