Citizen Scientist
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15
Ratings3
Average rating3
Here is a wide-ranging adventure in becoming a citizen scientist by an award-winning writer and environmental thought leader. As Mary Ellen Hannibal wades into tide pools, follows hawks, and scours mountains to collect data on threatened species, she discovers the power of a heroic cast of volunteers—and the makings of what may be our last, best hope in slowing an unprecedented mass extinction.
Digging deeply, Hannibal traces today’s tech-enabled citizen science movement to its roots: the centuries-long tradition of amateur observation by writers and naturalists. Prompted by her novelist father’s sudden death, she also examines her own past—and discovers a family legacy of looking closely at the world. With unbending zeal for protecting the planet, she then turns her gaze to the wealth of species left to fight for.
Combining original reporting, meticulous research, and memoir in impassioned prose, *Citizen Scientist* is a literary event, a blueprint for action, and the story of how one woman rescued herself from an odyssey of loss—with a new kind of science.
Reviews with the most likes.
Mary Ellen Hannibal describes various “citizen science” endeavors, their origins, how they work and the impact they have (or can have) on efforts to preserve critical habitat, threatened species, fragile and rare ecosystems, and indigenous communities. The book is engagingly written in an informal, first person style. Hannibal has a personal connection with each of the endeavors that she describes (many of them are based in California). I wish I'd had more time to spend with the book.
