How to become a volunteer?

Are you deeply outraged by illegal deforestation and air pollution? And you root your soul for greening your city, protecting animal rights and helping homeless people and animals? Then you are ripe to become a volunteer. 

Climate change is a complex issue that requires comprehensive responses. Depending on whether you can donate as a volunteer — money, time, practical skills, or scientific knowledge — you can find appropriate use for yourself. 

Where to begin?

The first step to becoming a volunteer is to figure out how much time you can donate to volunteering. Environmental protection organizations put forward requirements for volunteers, for example, — the ability to devote yourself 4 hours a week for at least 10 weeks. This is the time during which, having started a project, you can bring it to completion. 

What can you do?

The second step is to decide what exactly you will do as a volunteer. Some people enjoy providing hands-on help, while others are adept at doing administrative or other work that helps the organization function. Think about what you can offer a volunteer organization — what skills, abilities and knowledge you possess, so that they help you to prove yourself effectively, and the organization — to promote their projects.

Where to volunteer?

After you've set the time to volunteer and figured out exactly what you can donate, it remains to figure out where you can become a volunteer. There are three possible options:

1) Public organizations that fight in the public sphere against the culprits of environmental pollution — this is the so-called climate lobby — organizations that are suitable for lawyers, philologists, economists, political scientists and aspiring politicians.

If you are studying languages, economics, law, or political science, you should probably consider volunteering with climate lobby organizations that specialize in fighting climate change through public policy. The main methods of such a struggle are writing author's articles for publication in print and online media, addressing politicians with calls for adopting laws in the field of environmental protection, holding summits and press conferences to discuss and popularize climate policy.

Volunteers of climate lobby organizations also visit educational institutions to inform students about negative trends in climate change and popularize the idea of ​​protecting the environment.

2) Charitable organizations that in practice help homeless people and abandoned animals ео find a new home. These organizations are also installing energy-saving systems for homes and implementing innovative building technologies that make homes more resilient to weather events such as natural disasters caused by climate change. Volunteers from such organizations also help rebuild houses destroyed by natural disasters. 

3) Citizenship Science Projects — these are suitable for students, scientists, and volunteers who want to make their humble contribution to the global database of dramatic climate change.

Citizenship science is an area in which volunteers from around the world contribute data to an ever-growing collective body of scientific information about nature. In such projects, you can volunteer according to your individual schedule.

Civil science projects require you to register on certain websites, and also use a mobile application in order to quickly (with synchronization of time and location) you can enter statistical data into the database, for example, when counting the number of a certain type of animal, living in your area, or when measuring snow in the mountains. When enough information is collected, expert scientists analyze data on trends in climate change and other environmental issues.