Citizen science

THINK Citizen science can be a powerful force for needed planetary change

By Kathleen Rogers and Dr. Anne Bowser

World Honey Bee Day (third Saturday in August) came and went, but it wasn’t a celebration: more than 40% of insect species are threatened with extinction.

Thanks to science, we know exactly why: habitat loss, pollution from pesticides, invasive species, and climate change all play a significant role. But because professional scientists only have so much time, they cannot always collect all of the data needed to understand where different species are or how populations are changing at the local or global scale.

And without our help, professional researchers can’t speak strongly enough to advocate for the policies we need to reverse current trends.

One obvious solution to both challenges is citizen science, which brings the public into the research process.

Through crowdsourcing, citizen science leads to more data, including from places that professional researchers cannot always access.

Citizen science also provides an opportunity for the people who contribute to research to advocate to drive direct change, letting their voice be heard through direct actions that can solve global problems.

Estimates of the number of people who engage in citizen science vary wildly but conservatively tens of millions of students and adults do some form of citizen science every year. Citizen science happens in schools, in informal education settings like museums, through corporate social responsibility expeditions, and in people’s backyards.

So, too, the economic value of citizen science projects is uncertain, with some estimates calculating the value in the billions of dollars for biodiversity monitoring alone. Since 2010, there has been a significant rise in the number of peer reviewed publications that mention citizen science.

A Rusty-patched bumble bee feeds on wild bergamot. It’s an endangered bee that since 2019 has been Minnesota’s state bee. Photo by Kim Mitchell, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

But the impact of citizen science to everyone in one place. One solution reaches far beyond the production is creating the Citizen Science Cloud, a of data. It is a powerful form of one-stop-shop for citizen science data experiential learning for everyone, collected from a wide range of projects. children and adults alike. Professional researchers can take ad

It also supports an enhanced scivantage of open APIs, while everyday entific literacy among different public people can use data visualization and community members. Engaging people mapping tools to see what’s happening in citizen science and making research in their own communities. data open also democratizes science, Second, the Earth Challenge mobile which can increase belief and trust in app (available in the Apple and Google science. Play stores) directly links science

But while thousands of citizen scito action, an opportunity to use ence projects are conducted every technology and data to drive change day, many are missing two key elethat is unique in the citizen science ments: first, providing access to world. comprehensive open source data, Once a user contributes data, and second, providing pathways whether taking a photo of a bee or for participants to engage their classifying photos of plastic in the governments through civic action. environment, they can take country

Without these two elements, citispecific civic engagement actions, such zen science misses an important as signing petitions, that are focused opportunity to advance scientific on impacting current policy decisionresearch, and limits the potential to making processed at their national deepen the public’s engagement at level. the intersection of science and public To address bee declines, for example, policy. participants can petition their govern

A new citizen science project, Earth ments to ban certain pesticides, Challenge 2020 – led by Earth Day address agricultural practices that are Network, the Wilson Center, and the decimating bee populations, or create U.S. Department of State – takes a step habitats for bees and other pol-linators. forward to address both of those issues. Guiding citizen scientists down

First, while some citizen science data the pathway of civic action builds a is open source, it is not easily accessible deeper relationship between critically important data and its natural outgrowth, strong science-based policy.

Citizen science projects, if created with solid hypotheses and engaging technologies, can aid professional scientists who are interested in acquiring more data and support global monitoring against targets like the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Engaging the public broadly in citizen science can also lead to stronger knowledge and deeper trust in science. Adding a civic action component to citizen science initiatives will build a broader, more diverse, and more active global community of ordinary people who will take action to save their communities and the planet. Wellconstructed citizen science, supported by open data and civic action, is a powerful force for the change our planet needs.

Kathleen Rogers is president of Earth Day Network (EDN). The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. EDN, the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, now works year-round with tens of thousands of partners in 192 countries. Dr. Anne Bowser is director of Innovation at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a quasigovernment think tank. Her research explores how new advances in science and technology can lead to positive social and environmental outcomes. Outside the Wilson Center, Anne has formal advisory roles with the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence and the United Nation’s Environment Programme.