MEDIA RELEASE
Wednesday, 24 May 2023

Think Globally, Act Locally

Re: Volunteering for the Environment!

Whilst many people are concerned about environmental matters, the desire to participate in volunteer opportunities with environmental organisations is somewhat limited: not enough time; too big an issue to tackle; will we do any good? Isn’t it the Government’s job? These and other objections are real and have to be acknowledged.

However, you don’t have to give up all you hold dear and go off and live in a tent by a billabong to be green. There are many ways you can be involved in environmental matters.

There are a number of environmental observances each year – for example, Clean Up Australia Day (www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au); World Environment Day (https://www.un.org/en/observances/environment-day) or a plethora of UN International Days and Weeks (www.un.org/en/observances/list-days-weeks).

There are also a number of Citizen Science projects that allow for people to participate on an ad hoc basis as the mood takes them. For example:

• Marine Debris Tracker www.debristracker.org is an app-based, open data citizen science project that allows you to record marine litter via your smartphone.
• Similarly, the Australian Microplastic Assessment Project (www.ausmap.org) is a citizen science project aimed to obtaining data on microplastics in the marine environment.

The CSIRO also have a number of citizen science projects that you might like to be involved with www.csiro.au/en/education/get-involved/citizen-science/projects.

There are many, many other opportunities to get involved with environmental volunteering. So, what is stopping you?

Frank Ondrus, President – HOPE Inc., ph. 07 4639 2135

20230524 – MR – Volunteering for the Environment – Citizen Science.docx