Welcome to the Thriving Earth Exchange’s (TEX) blog space. The purpose of the blog is to inspire thinking, open-participation and discussion on particular topics or themes. We encourage you to leave comments on any blog post by clicking through to each post and sharing your thoughts at the bottom.
During AGU’s 2021 Fall Meeting in New Orleans, we were honored to meet many community members who are working to make the region’s neighborhoods healthier, more connected and more resilient. Here’s a glimpse of what we saw. Community lead Julia Kumari Drapkin stands in front of a football field in Gentilly, now the site of […]
Anchorage is Alaska’s largest city, with 300,000 residents spread out over an area about the size of Delaware. Part of Dena’ina Elnena (Dena’ina Country), home to members of the Eklutna and Knik tribes and many nationalities, it is a place with deep indigenous roots and a complex cultural and political history. Nestled between the Cook […]
“Small but mighty” Park City leads the way on climate by Kathleen Pierce Park City, Utah, is famous for its winter sports and glitzy Sundance Film Festival. But when the more than 3 million annual tourists and vacation home owners leave, the city’s 8,300 year-round residents don’t relax. Instead, they are busy accomplishing bold climate […]
Heat is deadly—even in Montana. But the city of Missoula is doing something about it. Missoula’s forward thinking climate planning offers lessons for other cities and towns facing similar conditions. By Laurie Mazur When you think of cities impacted by the urban heat island effect, you probably think of steamy Houston or the concrete […]
On July 20 and 24 our team carried out our first survey of residents of the 7th Ward. The survey asked residents their opinions about tree planting initiatives, rain gardens, neighborhood concerns such as crime and flooding, the effects of heat and hot weather, and other aspects of the physical and social environments in the […]
Featured Image caption: L-R: Josh Papacek (University of Florida/IFAS); Ashley Smyth (University of Florida/IFAS), Colin Polsky (Florida Atlantic University); Alyssa Jones Wood (City of Hallandale Beach), Willm Martens-Habbena (University of Florida/IFAS) (Photo courtesy of City of Hallandale Beach) The Hallandale Beach, Florida, project team achieved their first major project objective on May 8, 2019: […]
By Kelly McCarthy and Zack Valdez Community leaders and scientists from two U.S. cities are combining public health data and heat maps to prepare residents for climate change–related health risks. As the global community celebrates World Health Day on 7 April, at AGU we want to highlight projects in two U.S. cities striving to make climate-related health […]
By Sarah Wilkins, Project Manager As a Thriving Earth Project Manager, I am always thrilled to see the world out from behind my computer screen: meeting a project team in person, visiting the lands of a First Nation or walking a neighborhood with a community leader. I was granted such a chance in late September […]
Thriving Earth Exchange is excited to announce our Project Launch Workshop communities for Fall Meeting 2018: Community Country Topic/Theme Arlington, VA USA Clean energy and renewables Goldsboro, NC USA Coal ash contamination to air and water; Environmental justice Las Terrenas Dominican Republic Coastal erosion, coastal land loss Musoshi and Kasumbalesa Democratic Republic of the Congo […]
By Sarah Wilkins, Project Manager As a Thriving Earth Project Manager, I am always thrilled to see the world out from behind my computer screen: meeting a project team in person, visiting the lands of a First Nation or walking a neighborhood with a community leader. I was granted such a chance in late September […]
Climate change is a big, global problem. But climate action—the concrete, specific steps necessary to mitigate and adapt to climate change—is happening very much in the local sphere. Take, for example, the Global Climate Action Summit being held in San Francisco, Calif. this September. The event, timed to fall midway between two international climate meetings […]
By Raj Pandya, Director, TEX In the early part of the 20th century, progress in New Orleans looked like transforming marshes into city blocks using engineered drainage. Neighborhoods that had been plagued by diseases associated with standing water became livable, which was especially good for the poorest residents—usually African American—who lived in the lowest areas […]
Think of AGU’s Fall Meeting and the first impression that comes to mind is probably “huge.” Coming in at a close second is probably “science.” So why would community leaders from the far reaches of the Arctic to the marshes of the Louisiana bayou wade into this 24,000-person whirlwind of Earth and space science? Because […]
Water—and sometimes, flooding—is a fact of life for residents and planners in the city of New Orleans. Water has shaped the city’s infrastructure, history and culture for 300 years. In a four-hour field trip organized as part of AGU’s 2017 Fall Meeting, journalists, public information officers and others got a first-hand look at the water-related […]
Cities and towns are where the rubber hits the road when it comes to climate adaptation. It’s at the community level where key decisions are made about where to build, how to prepare for disaster and what modes of transit to support, for example. Local government is also a first line of contact for concerned […]
The recent devastation in Texas, Florida, South Asia and other areas has drawn a lot of attention to big questions about climate, development and the risk of future disasters. But if history is any guide, the attention to those questions can ebb as the waters recede. Events like these offer a stark reminder that if […]
TEX works with communities to improve their resilience by leveraging Earth and space science to prepare for and mitigate the threats posed by destructive storms, flood and other hazards. Flood Forum USA supports grassroots flood groups across the country by helping them develop strategies for a sustainable future, and TEX is working with ten of their […]
By Anne Johnson The heat of the summer is not just a nuisance but a significant public health threat. In most years, extreme heat causes more deaths than any other type of weather-related disaster. The danger is most acute for elderly people, who are more vulnerable to the effects of heat, and for people living […]
During the week of July 24, 2017, an impressive group of experts and practitioners from all over the world gathered in New York City to talk about urban resilience at the 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) Urban Resilience Summit. The summit united Chief Resilience Officers (or CROs) and their staff, strategy partners (organizations that provide strategic […]
This article was initially posted in Eos on July 11, 2017. The Resilience Dialogues program provides resources and expertise to help communities build individualized plans for resilience in the face of climate change. By Nancy D. Lamontagne Climate change is global, but its effects are felt locally. Although many communities try to plan for […]
WASHINGTON, DC – The Resilience Dialogues, a public-private collaborative effort to help local communities address climate-related vulnerabilities, today announced 10 communities will participate in the collaboration’s beta phase. Through the Resilience Dialogues, the communities will explore their risks from climate variability and change and work through a series of facilitated online dialogues with subject matter […]
Ajay Kalra and Marco Velotta continue to work together to assess drought risk and vulnerability in Las Vegas. Over the past weeks, the project team has obtained important information including model and climate data, which will help them in determining drought risk. They have also begun creating future climate scenarios for the impact of climate […]
The Hermosa Beach TEX project team had their first in-person meeting on August 25, 2016 in Hermosa Beach, CA. Lon Peters and community lead Kristy Morris discussed the project workplan , toured potential project sites, and met with Tom Bakaly, Hermosa Beach City Manager. During this meeting, they discussed the likely technologies that could be pursued […]
The Pittsburgh project team made significant progress toward their goal of developing a robust carbon inventory for the city and its Climate Action Plan. During the partnership’s first month, the team sat down with local utility representatives to discuss procedures for sharing data, as well as the format and resolution that could be expected. The […]
Dr. Dan Wildcat (of Haskell University) and Bull Bennett (of Kiksapa consulting) have been building their relationship with tribal colleges for years. Having worked on environmental issues for the past 20 years Dan Wildcat has built a large network of scientists, potential mentors and students. Bull Bennett has been a mentor for years to both […]
