Environmental pollution has become a widespread, global problem that besets the world we live in today. While many of us have simply looked to environmental campaigners, research scientists, politicians, international organisations, and other institutions of power and knowledge to do something about our dying planet, have we stopped to ponder over the change that we could create?
Now, you may be wondering to yourself. Me, an ordinary citizen? What good can I do?
Well, a lot more than you think! In today’s entry, I will share with you more about the power of citizen science to effect environmental change in the context of a highly normalised form of pollution – noise pollution.
Noise pollution is everywhere. From the sky above us to the deepest depths of the oceans, anthropogenic noise has wreaked havoc on the acoustic environments and health of human beings and wildlife. Yet, not much has been done to mitigate, monitor, and manage the deleterious effects of noise on human beings and wildlife (Sonne and Alstrup, 2019). It is time for us to step up and consider alternative ways that we, as citizens, can address the noise problem.
One such method is citizen science, which refers to voluntary citizens who participate and contribute to scientific studies.
Often, citizen scientists engage in different phases of scientific research, such as data collection, observation, monitoring and even analysis (European Commission, 2020). In doing so, citizen science presents a complementary partnership between the public and scientists that drives environmental change (Cohn, 2008), adding value in 3 ways:
1. Policy value
- Citizen science contributes to different stages of policy-making by identifying and raising environmental problems to the attention of policymakers.
- It includes people on the ground in environmental decision-making, shedding new light and perspectives on the understanding of environmental problems.
2. Scientific value
Citizen science can offer alternative scientific evidence and data collection that may otherwise be unavailable in academia due to their particular spatialities and temporalities.
3. Societal value
Citizen science projects raise public awareness of existing and potential environmental concerns whilst empowering citizens to address and learn more about these issues.
To examine the impacts of noise on nature and society, the Danish Carlsberg Foundation has approved a citizen science soundscape mapping initiative in Denmark. With the goal of getting 100,000 Danish adults and children across the country to record 30-second audio memos using a new smartphone application, Denmark is the first country to conduct a national noise mapping exercise of its urban environments and landscapes (Sonne and Alstrup, 2019).
Projects as such will definitely open many ears to the significance and magnitude of noise pollution, and encourage further research and policies that target this prevalent yet invisible problem.
References:
Cohn, J. P. (2008). Citizen science: Can volunteers do real research?. BioScience, 58(3), 192-197.
European Commission (2020). Best Practices in Citizen Science for Environmental Monitoring. Retrieved 12 March 2022, from https://ec.europa.eu/environment/legal/reporting/pdf/best_practices_citizen_science_environmental_monitoring.pdf
Sonne, C., & Alstrup, A. K. (2019). Using citizen science to speed up plastic collection and mapping of urban noise: Lessons learned from Denmark. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 149, 110591.