Skip to footer

How to join climate team

  • By ­ Allison Terry Correspondents of The Christian Science Monitor
  • Ryan Lenora Brown Correspondents of The Christian Science Monitor

Changes in temperature, precipitation, and plant and animal life are happening around the world – whether scientists are there to record them or not. To that end, some organizations enlist volunteers to keep local tabs on global warming.

Bill Runyon, a National Weather Service retiree, collects precipitation data in San Marcos, Texas, for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network. Its 20,000 volunteers nationwide measure and map precipitation for use by the NWS, utilities, insurance adjusters, and the US Department of Agriculture, among others.

No one needs a degree in meteorology to help, Mr. Runyon says. "All you need is an interest in weather and a desire to make a contribution to science."

Volunteers provide real-time data in extreme weather and also contribute to historical records that can be studied hundreds of years from now, Runyon says. "It's addictive."

To get involved, sign up on the group's website (www.cocorahs.org/Application.aspx), buy a $30 rain gauge, complete a short training session, and start measuring.

Below are some other opportunities for the general public to help track the effects of climate change:

National Weather Service Cooperative Observer Program – Some 11,000 volunteers collect both temperature and precipitation data where they live and work. The NWS takes on new observers on the basis of location and willingness to take measurements daily. To learn if NWS needs volunteers in your area, go to www.nws.noaa.gov/om/coop/become.htm.

Watch the Wild – Volunteers feed observations of local flora, fauna, and weather to the Watch the Wild database, run by the nonprofit group Nature Abounds. The data are then distributed to scientists and researchers. Visit www.natureabounds.org/Online_Access.html.

Mountain Watch – The Appalachian Mountain Club's network of volunteer mountain observers collects data on the flowering of plants, visibility of peaks, and air quality. To take a record sheet on your next Appalachian hike, go to www.outdoors.org/conservation/mountainwatch/index.cfm.

Citizen Science – An extensive list of opportunities to take part in scientific research – whether bird tracking, climate change, air quality, or plant life – is maintained by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Visit www.birds.cornell.edu/citscitoolkit/projects/alphabetical.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to How to join climate team
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2013/0422/How-to-join-climate-team
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe