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