Linking citizen scientists with technology to reduce climate data gaps

What is the countercultural potential of citizen science? As a participant in the wider citizen science movement, I can attest that contemporary citizen science initiatives rarely characterise themselves as countercultural. Rather, the goal of most citizen science projects is to be seen as producing orthodox scientific knowledge: the ethos is respectability rather than rebellion (NERC). I will suggest instead that there are resonances with the counterculture that emerged in the 1960s, most visibly through an emphasis on participatory experimentation and the principles of environmental sustainability and social justice. This will be illustrated by example, through two citizen science projects that have a commitment to combining social values with scientific practice. I will then describe the explicitly countercultural organisation, Science for the People, which arose from within the scientific community itself, out of opposition to the Vietnam War. Methodological and conceptual weaknesses in the authoritative model of science are explored, suggesting that there is an opportunity for citizen science to become anti-hegemonic by challenging the hegemony of science itself. This reformulation will be expressed through Deleuze and Guattari's notion of nomadic science, the means through which citizen science could become countercultural. Counterculture Before examining the countercultural potential of citizen science, I set out some of the grounds for identifying a counterculture drawing on the ideas of Theodore Roszak, who invented the term counterculture to describe the new forms of youth movements that emerged in the 1960s (Roszak). This was a perspective that allowed the carnivalesque procession of beatniks, hippies and the New Left to be seen as a single paradigm shift combining psychic and social revolution. But just as striking and more often forgotten is the way Roszak characterised the role of the counterculture as mobilising a vital critique of the scientific worldview (Roszak 273-274). The concept of counterculture has been taken up in diverse ways since its original formation. We can draw, for example, on Lawrence Grossberg's more contemporary analysis of counterculture (Grossberg) to clarify the main concepts and contrast them with a scientific approach. Firstly, a counterculture works on and through cultural formations. This positions it as something the scientific community would see as the other, as the opposite to the objective, repeatable and quantitative truth-seeking of science. Secondly, a counterculture is a diverse and hybrid space without a unitary identity. Again, scientists would often see science as a singular activity applied in modulated forms depending on the context, although in practice the different sciences can experience each other as different tribes. Thirdly, a counterculture is lived as a transformative experience where the participant is fundamentally changed at a psychic level through participation in unique events. Contrast this with the scientific idea of the separation of observer and observed, and the objective repeatability of the experiment irrespective of the experimenter. Fourthly, a counterculture is associated with a unique moment in time, a point of shift from the old to the new. For the counterculture of the 1960s this was the Age of Aquarius. In general, the aim of science and scientists is to contribute to a form of truth that is essentially timeless, in that a physical law is assumed to hold across all time (and space), although science also has moments of radical change with regard to scientific paradigms. Finally, and significantly for the conclusions of this paper, according to Roszak a counterculture stands against the mainstream. It offers a challenge not at the level of detail but, to the fundamental assumptions of the status quo. This is what “science” cannot do, in as much as science itself has become the mainstream. It was the character of science as the bedrock of all values that Roszak himself opposed and for which he named and welcomed the counterculture. Although critical of some of the more shallow aspects of its psychedelic experimentation or political militancy, he shared its criticism of the technocratic society (the technocracy) and the egocentric mode of consciousness. His hope was that the counterculture could help restore a visionary imagination along with a more human sense of community. What Is Citizen Science? In recent years the concept of citizen science has grown massively in popularity, but is still an open and unstable term with many variants. Current moves towards institutionalisation (Citizen Science Association) are attempting to marry growth and stabilisation, with the first Annual General Meeting of the European Citizen Science Association securing a tentative agreement on the common principles of citizen science (Haklay, "European"). Key papers and presentations in the mainstream of the movement emphasise that citizen science is not a new activity (Bonney et al.) with much being made of the fact that the National Audubon Society started its annual Christmas Bird Count in 1900 (National Audubon Society). However, this elides the key role of the Internet in the current surge, which takes two distinct forms; the organisation of distributed fieldwork, and the online crowdsourcing of data analysis. To scientists, the appeal of citizen science fieldwork follows from its distributed character; they can research patterns over large scales and across latitudes in ways that would be impossible for a researcher at a single study site (Toomey). Gathering together the volunteer, observations are made possible by an infrastructure of web tools. The role of the citizen in this is to be a careful observer; the eyes and ears of the scientist in cyberspace. In online crowdsourcing, the internet is used to present pattern recognition tasks; enrolling users in searching images for signs of new planets or the jets of material from black holes. The growth of science crowdsourcing is exponential; one of the largest sites facilitating this kind of citizen science now has well in excess of a million registered users (Zooniverse). Such is the force of the technological aura around crowdsourced science that mainstream publications often conflate it with the whole of citizen science (Parr). There are projects within citizen science which share core values with the counterculture as originally defined by Roszak, in particular open participation and social justice. These projects also show characteristics from Grossberg's analysis of counterculture; they are diverse and hybrid spaces, carry a sense of moving from an old era to a new one, and have cultural forms of their own. They open up the full range of the scientific method to participation, including problem definition, research design, analysis and action. Citizen science projects that aim for participation in all these areas include the Extreme Citizen Science research group (ExCiteS) at University College London (UCL), the associated social enterprise Mapping for Change (Mapping for Change), and the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (Public Lab). ExCiteS sees its version of citizen science as "a situated, bottom-up practice" that "takes into account local needs, practices and culture". Public Lab, meanwhile, argue that many citizen science projects only offer non-scientists token forms of participation in scientific inquiry that rarely amount to more that data collection and record keeping. They counter this through an open process which tries to involve communities all the way from framing the research questions, to prototyping tools, to collating and interpreting the measurements. ExCiteS and Public Lab also share an implicit commitment to social justice through scientific activity. The Public Lab mission is to "put scientific inquiry at the heart of civic life" and the UCL research group strive for "new devices and knowledge creation processes that can transform the world". All of their work is framed by environmental sustainability and care for the planet, whether it's enabling environmental monitoring by indigenous communities in the Congo (ExCiteS) or developing do-it-yourself spectrometry kits to detect crude oil pollution (Public Lab, "Homebrew"). Having provided a case for elements of countercultural DNA being present in bottom-up and problem-driven citizen science, we can contrast this with Science for the People, a scientific movement that was born out of the counterculture. Countercultural Science from the 1970s: Science for the People Science for the People (SftP) was a scientific movement seeded by a rebellion of young physicists against the role of US science in the Vietnam War. Young members of the American Physical Society (APS) lobbied for it to take a position against the war but were heavily criticised by other members, whose written complaints in the communications of the APS focused on the importance of scientific neutrality and the need to maintain the association's purely scientific nature rather than allowing science to become contaminated by politics (Sarah Bridger, in Plenary 2, 0:46 to 1:04). The counter-narrative from the dissidents argued that science is not neutral, invoking the example of Nazi science as a justification for taking a stand. After losing the internal vote the young radicals left to form Scientists and Engineers for Social and Political Action (SESPA), which later became Science for the People (SftP). As well as opposition to the Vietnam War, SftP embodied from the start other key themes of the counterculture, such as civil rights and feminism. For example, the first edition of Science for the People magazine (appearing as Vol. 2, No. 2 of the SESPA Newsletter) included an article about leading Black Panther, Bobby Seale, alongside a piece entitled “Women Demand Equality in Science.” The final articles

Temperature vulnerability tends to be heterogenous between urban and rural regions, with usually larger risks in the former. However, it is unclear whether this pattern will persist under different climate change scenarios. Climate change combined with population growth, ageing and urbanization is expected to amplify the current temperature-related mortality burden, particularly since these drivers will follow diverse trajectories across urban and rural areas in the future. This study aimed to compare the impact of climate change regarding changes in heat- and cold-related mortality under various warming scenarios across urban/rural districts in Switzerland, while also accounting for changes in population demographics. We first estimated the district-age-specific (<75/>=75years) temperature-mortality association between 1990-2010 in Switzerland using a two-stage time series design with distributed-lag nonlinear models. We then projected heat- and cold-related mortality under 1.5C, 2.0C, 3.0C and 4.0C warming scenarios using downscaled temperature projections under RCP8.5 while accounting for the Shared Socio-economic pathway (SSP5) population development storyline. In Switzerland, heat- and cold-related mortality will increase by 2,420(95%CI:1654;3,884) and 993(82;1883) deaths /year, respectively, under 4.0C warming (vs. 1990-2010). Urban areas are more affected by both heat and cold and this pattern appears to be amplified under warmer scenarios. In particular, per 100 heat-related deaths in rural areas, there will be an increase from 362 to 391 deaths in urban areas, with similar results for cold (from 262 to 286 per 100 deaths in rural areas), indicating a slight increase in vulnerability to climate change in urban regions in the near future. Our preliminary findings suggest that climate change will increase current heat and cold-related mortality in Switzerland, and moreover, urban areas will continuously more be disproportionately affected. Further analyses will aim to account for urbanization projections and disentangle the contribution of the different drivers across urban and rural regions.

Spatial-temporal current forecasting is indispensable for ocean engineering and marine science exploration, for instance aiding in the conservation and protection of marine ecosystems, planning shipping-routes and determining the length and fuel consumption of sea-going voyages, obtaining deeper insights into the distribution of heat flux within the ocean, which is vital for better understanding climate changes, and so on. Most present related-studies primarily focused on single location or grid-cell-based forecasting, such methodologies are site-specific and neglect the importance of spatial-temporal fidelity. Furtherly, the Recurrent Neural Networks-based methods previously employed exhibit low efficiency in terms of model convergence concerning practical engineering purposes, and numerical weather models are time-consuming and computational expensive. A newly improved Unet-based model using residual-learning with attention strategy is proposed for 2D sea surface current (SSC) velocity predictions with a more efficient perspective. Several machine-learning methodologies were adopted for a better performance comparison. The final predictions demonstrated its superiorities that the proposed neural-learning method outperforms the other established approaches with spatial-resolved mean RMSE less than 0.009 m/s and 0.006 m/s. As a promising surrogate for SSC predictions, the proposed methodology has strong potential in operation marine monitoring and engineering constructions.

Recent dynamics of alpine lakes on the endorheic Changtang Plateau from multi-mission satellite data

Perceptions of climate variability and change in coastal Kenya: The case of mangrove-dependent communities in the Lower Tana Delta

Preface Acknowledgments 1. Climate Variability, Predictability, and Change: An Introduction 2. Overview: Thermal Regimes 3. Global Climate Change Impact on the Midwestern USA--A Summer Cooling Trend 4. Historical and Projected Changes in the Length of the Frost-Free Season 5. Long-Term Midwestern USA Summer Equivalent Temperature Variability 6. Estimating Changes in Temperature Variability in a Future Climate 7. Wisconsin's Changing Climate: Temperature 8. Overview: Hydrologic Regimes 9. Did Precipitation Regimes Change during the Twentieth Century? 10. Climate Change and Streamflow in the Upper Mississippi River Basin 11. The Influence of Land Cover Type on Surface Hydrology in Michigan 12. Wisconsin's Changing Climate: Hydrologic Cycle 13. Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Extreme Rainfall in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area 14. Overview: North American Atmospheric Circulation Effects on Midwestern USA Climate 15. Historical Trends in Near-Surface Wind Speeds 16. Variability of Wind Speed Regimes in Minnesota 17. Teleconnections and Circulation Patterns in the Midwestern USA 18. Regional Synoptic Classification: A Midwestern USA Example 19. Overview: Climate Hazards 20. Severe Storms in the Midwestern USA 21. Climate Sensitivity of Great LakesGenerated Weather Systems 22. Severe Weather Hazards in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area 23. Where Is Climate Science in the Midwestern USA Going? Further Reading List of Contributors Index

Human-induced climate change will likely cause more intense and frequent cyclones and typhoons, as noted in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Within the Asia-Pacific region, regional security discussions at the leadership level focus on the imminent threats to states and societies of more frequent and intense extreme weather events and sea-level rise as it is the world’s most exposed region. This article examines recent developments and discourse regarding climate change in the Asia-Pacific security architecture using the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a case study. It finds increasing recognition of climate change and its implications for peace and security within the regional security architecture. Debates over how best to address it to overcome an atomised approach to climate change impacts on peace and security in the region remain unresolved, but recent pronouncements at the leadership level signal an emerging mindset shift in understanding climate change within the regional security discourse. However, the substantive discussions largely take place in hybrid forums, albeit with official recognition in more traditional platforms, which may undermine efforts for an inclusive regional discourse on the climate change impacts on peace and security in ASEAN.

The challenges associated with understanding Climate Change (CC) and subsequent socio-technical solutions stem from the complexity and uncertainties inherent within the mechanisms, magnitudes and temporal nature of the environment. Modelling & Simulation (M&S) has flourished as an enabling technology providing insight into the intricacies of Climate Change as well as facilitating understanding regarding the social and ecological implications of these changes. In addition, M&S has been instrumental in influencing decision making across many domains. The application of M&S to garner understanding of complex environmental behaviour often predicates the requirement to integrate various models and simulations. High Level Architecture (HLA) is a software architecture for constructing distributed simulations. It facilitates interoperability among different simulations and simulation types and promotes reuse of simulation software modules making it a very attractive option for M&S applications such as that within the CC domain. As the impact of the application of M&S transcends the 'virtual world', the danger of adverse effects of erroneous or unsuitable models or simulation results also increases. The application of Verification and Validation (V&V) of models and simulation results are intended to ensure that only correct and suitable models and simulation results are used. Although individual models may have been V&V, there integration within an HLA framework may result in a simulation behaviour that yields inaccurate results and thereby creates a condition such that decisions and actions would be based on invalid results. Under the auspices of the NATO Modelling and Simulation Group (NMSG) 19 and Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) Product Development Group (PDG), a VV&A overlay for the HLA Federation Development and Execution Process (FEDEP) in accordance with IEEE 1516.3 has been developed. This paper presents the key concepts of this VV&A overlay. The results of this paper are far reaching in terms of how we conduct VV&A activities within an HLA environment thereby shaping engineering and policy decisions.

The global concern that Africa’s strong economic dependency on climate-related activities makes it vulnerable is troubling as the continent is lagging in embracing scientific techniques for adapting to the changing global environment. However, challenges exist where the application of ‘modern scientific’ knowledge to addressing climate change appears to disregard resilient ‘indigenous knowledge systems.’ This study situates the praxes and experiences of peasant farmers in Ghana to explore the indigenous knowledge systems they use to navigate climate change’s impact on their livelihoods. The study adopts the theoretical framework of Bruchac’s ‘indigenous knowledge theory’ in unpacking the socio-cultural ways peasant farmers in Ghana create unique ways of ‘knowing’ and understanding climate change. Utilising Focus Group Discussion and interviews, the views of peasant farmers on climate change and its impact on their livelihood were explored. The study found that the transferability of indigenous knowledge passed down to participants by their ancestors has shaped their ontological reality of changing climate patterns and its impact on their livelihoods. However, challenges exist in contemporary times in applying this knowledge to their farming practices. The study pushes for synthesising indigenous knowledge systems with modern scientific knowledge systems for institutional and behavioural change regarding climate change in Ghana.

Modern climate change is dominated by human influences, which are now large enough to exceed the bounds of natural variability. The main source of global climate change is human-induced changes in atmospheric composition. These perturbations primarily result from emissions associated with energy use, but on local and regional scales, urbanization and land use changes are also important. Although there has been progress in monitoring and understanding climate change, there remain many scientific, technical, and institutional impediments to precisely planning for, adapting to, and mitigating the effects of climate change. There is still considerable uncertainty about the rates of change that can be expected, but it is clear that these changes will be increasingly manifested in important and tangible ways, such as changes in extremes of temperature and precipitation, decreases in seasonal and perennial snow and ice extent, and sea level rise. Anthropogenic climate change is now likely to continue for many centuries. We are venturing into the unknown with climate, and its associated impacts could be quite disruptive.

Climate is defined by the Glossary of Meteorology as the mean of atmospheric variables over a period of time ranging from as short as a few months to multiple years and longer. Although the term climate is often used to refer to long-term weather statistics, the broader definition of climate is the time evolution of a system consisting of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. Physical, chemical, and biological processes are involved in interactions among the components of the climate system. Vegetation, soil moisture, and glaciers are part of the climate system in addition to the usually considered temperature and precipitation (Pielke, 2008). Climate change refers to any systematic change in the long-term statistics of climate elements (such as temperature, pressure, or winds) sustained over several decades or longer. Climate change can be initiated by external forces, such as cyclical variations in the Earth's solar orbit that are thought to have caused glacial and interglacial periods within the last 2 million years (Milankovitch, 1941). However, a linear response to astronomical forcing does not explain many other observed glacial and interglacial cycles (Petit et al., 1999). It is now understood that climate is influenced by the interaction of solar radiation with atmospheric greenhouse gasses (e.g., carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, methane, nitrous oxide, etc.), aerosols (airborne particles), and Earth's surface. A significant aspect of climate are the interannual cycles, such as the El Nino La Nina cycle which profoundly affects the weather in North America but is outside the scope of weather forecasts. Some of the most significant advances in understanding climate change have evolved from the recognition of the influence of ocean circulations upon the atmosphere (IPCC, 2007). Human activity can affect the climate system through increasing concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases, air pollution, increasing concentrations of aerosol, and land alteration. A particular concern is that atmospheric levels of CO{sub 2} may be rising faster than at any time in Earth's history, except possibly following rare events like impacts from large extraterrestrial objects (AMS, 2007). Atmospheric CO{sub 2} concentrations have increased since the mid-1700s through fossil fuel burning and changes in land use, with more than 80% of this increase occurring since 1900. The increased levels of CO{sub 2} will remain in the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years. The complexity of the climate system makes it difficult to predict specific aspects of human-induced climate change, such as exactly how and where changes will occur, and their magnitude. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) was established by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations in 1988. The IPCC was tasked with assessing the scientific, technical and socioeconomic information needed to understand the risk of human-induced climate change, its observed and projected impacts, and options for adaptation and mitigation. The IPCC concluded in its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) that warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and that most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increased in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations (IPCC, 2007).

Editorial| April 01 2021 Reflections of a Citizen Scientist Educator Brad Williamson Brad Williamson BRAD WILLIAMSON is a retired biology teacher in Kansas. He can be reached at bwilliam@ku.edu. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar The American Biology Teacher (2021) 83 (4): 209. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2021.83.4.209 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Brad Williamson; Reflections of a Citizen Scientist Educator. The American Biology Teacher 1 April 2021; 83 (4): 209. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2021.83.4.209 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentThe American Biology Teacher Search In my work as a biology teacher, one of my goals has been to engage students as scientists. Certainly, laboratory activities in the classroom can initiate that process, but sharing projects and strategies that students can apply outside the classroom will make a more long-lasting impact. One such strategy that I have long found engaging is citizen science. My own contribution as a citizen scientist began with a mark and recapture project of butterflies called Monarch Watch, started with Dr. Chip Taylor at the University of Kansas (https://monarchwatch.org/). We began in the early 1990s, when the idea of citizen science was just getting started and before the term had been coined by Rick Bonney of Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology. It was easy to see how working on a citizen science project might benefit students, giving them a chance to work on and contribute to an authentic scientific... You do not currently have access to this content.

PurposeThis study aims to examine the research output on climate change, environmental risks and insurance from 1986 to 2020, thereby revealing the development of the literature through collaborative networks. The relationship between insurance, climate change and environmental threats has gained research attention. This study describes the interaction between insurance, climate change and environmental risk.Design/methodology/approachThis study is a bibliometric analysis of the literature and assessed the current state of science. A total of 97 academic papers from top-level journals listed in the Scopus database are shortlisted.FindingsThe understanding of climate change, environmental risks and insurance is shaped and enhanced through the collaborative network maps of researchers. Their reach expands across different networks, core themes and streams, as these topics develop.Research limitations/implicationsData for this study were generated from English-written journal articles listed in the Scopus database only; subsequently, this study was representative of high-quality papers published in the areas of climate change, environmental risks and insurance.Practical implicationsThe results of this study can be useful to academic researchers to aid their understanding of climate change, environmental risks and insurance research development, to identify the current context and to develop a future research agenda.Social implicationsThe findings of this study can improve the understanding of industry practitioners about climate change and global warming challenges, and how insurance can be used as a tool to address such challenges.Originality/valueThis study is a novel attempt. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to better understand climate change, environmental risks and insurance as a research topic by examining its evolution in an academic context through visualization, coupling and bibliometric analysis. This bibliometric study is unique in reviewing climate change literature and providing a future research agenda. Using bibliometric data, this study addressed the technical aspects and the value it adds to actual practice. Bibliometric indicators quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate emerging disciplinary progress in this topic.

This article explores the integration of sustainability skills within a screen industry module through the critical lens of climate change education. Applied Skills for a Sustainable Media Industry was designed for UK higher education by a university–industry collaboration with BAFTA albert. This initiative started with a handful of higher education institutions and representatives from education bodies, but it now includes more than 50 partner institutions and organisations. This case study focuses on the module developed by the university–industry collaboration. The Applied Skills course, which teaches both production-based and content-focused curricula, is explored through its various continuities and alterations in the context of the wider literature on climate change education. While the name may sound deceptively simple – in being teaching about climate change – climate change education is a complex and multifaceted concept which spans international education policies, disciplines, interpretations and actualisations. In recent years, focus has been placed on understanding climate change as a complex social issue as well as a scientific one. This has meant a shift away from a science-only approach towards more systems-level thinking that cannot escape sociopolitics. Thus, there is an imperative within climate change education to teach both ‘climate’ and ‘change’. In response, this article explores how the offerings from Applied Skills can be analysed with reference to the wider scholarship on climate change education, with a particular focus on the scientific (climate) and social (change) themes. The research concludes with an overall reflection on the BAFTA albert Education Partnership in the context of climate change education, the wider university landscape, and university–industry collaborations.

This article examines the nature and manifestation of climate change driven impacts on the agrarian districts of Kongwa and Bahi in the semi arid areas of Dodoma region in Tanzania. A Survey of 398 households in the study area was undertaken to elicit information on the nature and manifestation of climate change driven impacts. Household and key informant interviews and focus group discussion were used in collection of primary data. Secondary data were obtained through documentary review and from the Tanzania Meteorological Agency for the case of climatic data. The results indicate that climate change in Dodoma region is evident as revealed by steady increase in temperature and wind speed and the general declining rainfall trend overtime. Consequently, such changes in weather parameters over time has severely affected the livelihoods of local communities as manifested through decline in crop production, loss of livelihood sources, shortage of water and pasture for livestock, and difficulties in feeding household members overtime among others. Given the findings, this article concludes that climate change and its impacts in the area are real and hence climate change interventions should focus on increasing agricultural productivity, pasture for livestock through sustainable livestock keeping and land use planning, diversification of socio-economic activities, as well as sustainable utilization and management of natural resources. Keywords: Climate change; manifestation; local communities; semi arid areas, climate change impacts.