Citizen Science Without Narcissism: A Vision for True Stewardship
Honor the ordinary. Defend the invisible. In a world where everything beautiful eventually gets commodified, even citizen science risks losing its soul. Instead of awakening us to the living miracles around us, it can drift into yet another contest — more trophies, more checklists, more dopamine spikes. But true stewardship demands something harder, slower, and infinitely more sacred. It asks us not to chase nature across oceans, spewing carbon and disturbing fragile species just for another photo or digital badge. It asks us not to turn citizen science into a new kind of hunting — trophy walls replaced by crowded newsfeeds. It asks us to stay still. To see . We are living through the Sixth Mass Extinction . Every ant on our sidewalk, every overlooked sparrow in the gray trees outside our window, every dandelion crackling through concrete — they are miracles, survivors, treasures. To save the world, first, see it. When plant identification apps first appeared, I scanned my gard...