The People’s Science
(Hopecore edition)
I was taking advantage of post-outing insomnia and reading a technical book, looking for post inspiration. I finally drifted off mid-page, but before that I took advantage of the eBook format — clicking on a reference link instead of typing it in.
Instead of finding the source, I hit something I’ve been running into more often since January: a dead end.
That missing link got me thinking about something bigger than broken URLs. It’s about what happens when we lose public access to the science we paid for. When the information is hidden or destroyed, the vacuum gets filled with censorship, misinformation, and the encouragement of distrust in education — the same distrust that fuels climate change denial at the governmental level (Oreskes & Conway, 2010).
But here’s the hopeful part: science doesn’t have to be something done to us by faraway experts. It can be something we take part in — something we own.
I first learned about citizen science while doing peer reviews for my capstone. Then I leaned into it even more through my StoryMap project for The Nature Conservancy. I saw firsthand how training ordinary people to contribute data points doesn’t just help scientists — it teaches critical thinking, builds confidence in interpreting data, and reconnects people to their local environment (Bonney et al., 2016, Cooper et al., 2007).
Citizen science is one way we rebuild trust. Not by telling people to “just believe” the experts, but by letting them help create the data, see how it’s analyzed, and watch it become part of the bigger picture (Haklay, 2013).
Here in Missouri, that might mean:
Tracking when local plants bloom as part of climate monitoring USA-NPN
Logging flood events or extreme weather impacts CoCoRaHS
Recording wildlife sightings to help conservation planning iNaturalist
Every data point is a brick in the wall against misinformation. And the more people lay those bricks, the harder it is to tear down the truth.
Knowledge isn’t a vault guarded by gatekeepers. It’s a river. And every one of us can help keep it flowing.
Written by Cordy, Your Local Lorax — disabled vet, sustainability nerd, and ecosystem ranter. Find me on Bluesky: @EcoScholar
📚 References
Lewandowsky, S., Ecker, U. K., & Cook, J. (2017). Beyond misinformation: Understanding and coping with the “post-truth” era. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 6(4), 353–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2017.07.008
Oreskes, N., & Conway, E. M. (2010). Merchants of doubt. Bloomsbury Press. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/merchants-of-doubt-9781608193943/
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). Learning through citizen science: Enhancing opportunities by design. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25183
The Nature Conservancy. (n.d.). Missouri River Center for Conservation Innovation – StoryMap. https://arcg.is/1i8imq3
Bonney, R., Phillips, T. B., Ballard, H. L., & Enck, J. W. (2016). Can citizen science enhance public understanding of science? Public Understanding of Science, 25(1), 2–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662515607406
Cooper, C. B., Dickinson, J., Phillips, T., & Bonney, R. (2007). Citizen science as a tool for conservation in residential ecosystems. Ecology and Society, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02197-120211
Haklay, M. (2013). Citizen science and volunteered geographic information: Overview and typology of participation. In Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge (pp. 105–122). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4587-2_7
USA National Phenology Network. (n.d.). Nature’s Notebook. https://www.usanpn.org/natures_notebook
CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network). (n.d.). https://www.cocorahs.org
iNaturalist. (n.d.). https://www.inaturalist.org