Stubborn optimism first makes me think of the famous Loren Eiseley story, "The Star Thrower," (https://www.eiseley.org/Star_Thrower_Cook.pdf), and second, it makes me think of the program in which I participate as a volunteer Conservation Assistant with the South Carolina Aquarium. Our project, dubbed the Litter Journal, asks litter cleanup volunteers to not only collect litter from roadsides, river banks, beaches, and woodlands, but also to describe each piece of litter by use of a data form, and enter it into a public access database. The LJ began with only a few volunteer members and a few data points, but it has grown to over 3,100 participants who have documented nearly 4 and a half million data points. To keep doing this over the past ten years requires that we believe, as Richard Dreyfuss famously states in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "THIS MEANS SOMETHING. The data has actually been used throughout the state of South Carolina to present solid numbers to support single use plastic bans, balloon bans, bans on smoking on beaches, and more, as well as to test those bans to see how well they are working. Litter documentation projects like ours are not alone, and in fact they are only one example of Citizen Science and the power of the average citizen to take the time to observe and collect data on a variety of topics, for the use of scientists and decision makers in finding a way to a cleaner and healthier planet. I'm not likely to start a big movement, but I am certainly out there collecting litter and documenting it. In fact, over 1,750 hours of it at last count. Like my colleagues I am stubborn. We have to believe that everything that we do makes a difference, and that THIS MEANS SOMETHING.
Love this. Inner transformation for habitat restoration is my motto! It starts from the inside out. Having the right moral compass and attitude to enact lasting change for the betterment of all. We are nature.
Stubborn optimism first makes me think of the famous Loren Eiseley story, "The Star Thrower," (https://www.eiseley.org/Star_Thrower_Cook.pdf), and second, it makes me think of the program in which I participate as a volunteer Conservation Assistant with the South Carolina Aquarium. Our project, dubbed the Litter Journal, asks litter cleanup volunteers to not only collect litter from roadsides, river banks, beaches, and woodlands, but also to describe each piece of litter by use of a data form, and enter it into a public access database. The LJ began with only a few volunteer members and a few data points, but it has grown to over 3,100 participants who have documented nearly 4 and a half million data points. To keep doing this over the past ten years requires that we believe, as Richard Dreyfuss famously states in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "THIS MEANS SOMETHING. The data has actually been used throughout the state of South Carolina to present solid numbers to support single use plastic bans, balloon bans, bans on smoking on beaches, and more, as well as to test those bans to see how well they are working. Litter documentation projects like ours are not alone, and in fact they are only one example of Citizen Science and the power of the average citizen to take the time to observe and collect data on a variety of topics, for the use of scientists and decision makers in finding a way to a cleaner and healthier planet. I'm not likely to start a big movement, but I am certainly out there collecting litter and documenting it. In fact, over 1,750 hours of it at last count. Like my colleagues I am stubborn. We have to believe that everything that we do makes a difference, and that THIS MEANS SOMETHING.
Yes, everything we do makes a difference as we are shifting the energy and attitude of people, empowering masses to make global impact.
Love this. Inner transformation for habitat restoration is my motto! It starts from the inside out. Having the right moral compass and attitude to enact lasting change for the betterment of all. We are nature.