Just a little interlude. This should take you to a LinkedIn post. The post is good. The video is fun. I hope you enjoy.
Sometimes something shows up on the internet that is fun. I didn’t read the comments. I just wanted to enjoy the positive view.
Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact” – Carl Sagan
If you can’t be in awe of Mother Nature, there’s something wrong with you. —Alex Trebek
The broad topic of the environment covers everything from recycling to climate change. While these subjects are important to understand, I think the most important effort is to raise the awareness of folks to the world in which we live. How can one say they care about saving the environment, if they are unaware and have little understanding of this environment? My observation of the news and social media is that many speak of concerns without understanding them.
The question then is how to introduce people to the joy of really observing their environment? As contradictory as it sounds, the internet provides many opportunities for that. A great start is birds. A great place to start with that is The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. There are many other ways to become more aware of the wonders of nature. Citizen Science activities provide many ways to explore this. I think the most important part of this is getting out of doors and exploring.
I am a Rotarian and Rotary International has declared protecting the environment its 7th area of focus. Other areas are: promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water, saving mothers and children, supporting education, and growing local economies. A friend and I are proposing we bring that to a local level through our Rotary District and local clubs. Rotary International has an action group, ESRAG, which has been involved in this for quite some time. A healthy interaction with the environment is not only good for the environment; it’s good for us.
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. —Frank Lloyd Wright
Citizen science (CS; also known as community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur (or nonprofessional) scientists.[1] Citizen science is sometimes described as “public participation in scientific research”, participatory monitoring, and participatory action research whose outcomes are often advancements in scientific research by improving the scientific community’s capacity, as well as increasing the public’s understanding of science.[2][3][4]
By association with the National Grigsby Society and my studies of the history of science and technology, I have come to the view that history could be made far more interesting. When I was a kid, I thought history was very boring; that has changed.
History is described by some as follows:
“History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren’t there.” – George Santayana
“History is a set of lies agreed upon.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
History is a tool used by politicians to justify their intentions. -Ted Koppel
The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down. – A. Whitney Brown
“History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.” – Alexis de Tocqueville
“History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man.” -Percy Bysshe Shelley
“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” -Thomas Jefferson
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” – H. G. Wells
The question becomes, “how does one really understand history; can one?” Education is crucial but one must be on guard against the foibles described above. Back to the genesis of this thought, I think the study of the history of one’s family can make history far more inviting and interesting.