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.
We know here at Thriving Earth Exchange that water, how much of it is available to whom, where it travels, and what contaminants it carries with it, impacts people everywhere. Roughly one third of Thriving Earth Exchange projects are around the topics of flooding or contamination. Frequently, these issues most affect those who have […]
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 […]
From Katherine Egland: Gianna M. Cothren, Renee Collini and Christopher Anderson came out during a rainstorm for an extremely productive meeting with a small community focus group on Friday, August 2 at Forrest Heights Baptist Church, located at the foot of the Turkey Creek Bridge in Gulfport. Residents were eager to be engaged in shoring […]
The public is enjoying the amenities the Mill Creek Wetlands has to offer. Whether walking, jogging, riding the trails either by bicycle or by horseback, or simply exploring nature and the habitat; families, friends, groups as well as individuals are taking delight in the water quality facility. Recently, the City of Ontario conducted a tour […]
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 […]
Grappling with divisive issues, collaborators from multiple fields find common purpose TEX helps geoscientists and communities work together to solve problems. While it may be unconventional in the geosciences, this type of collaborative approach isn’t quite so new or radical in other fields. Indeed, the approach we call community science grew, in part, out […]
Brad Geismar, 2018 TEX Community Science Fellow for Colebrook, N.H. Located in northern New Hampshire close to the Canadian border, Colebrook, N.H. is a small town like many New England towns. Many of the town’s residents have ties to the community and its beautiful outdoor spaces that span generations. Unlike other small New England towns, […]
By Bradley Geismar, TEX Community Science Fellow, Colebrook, NH On Friday, April 20th, the students of Colebrook had an opportunity to learn about the complicated task of environmental remediation during a presentation on a decade-spanning clean-up operation at the Town’s municipal landfill. During the presentation, the students learned about the crucial link between scientific awareness […]
By Jill Antares Hunkler, Community Lead, TEX-Barnesville, OH project A special conference was hosted by participants in the American Geophysical Union’s Thriving Earth Exchange (TEX) Barnesville and Cambridge, OH projects at Salt Fork State Park Lodge and Conference Center on April 28, in southeastern Ohio. The purpose of the event was to inform residents […]
On Saturday, February 3, 2018, the TEX-Brandywine project held its first community education and engagement forum at the Union Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Brandywine, Maryland. The 4-hour event served as an opportunity for concerned citizens in Brandywine and surrounding neighborhoods to engage with and hear from peers, potential political representatives, and recognized subject […]
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 […]
The Brandywine, MD-TEX project team had their first meeting on February 28, 2017 in the classroom of a JoAnn Fabrics store in Brandywine, Maryland. Kamita Gray, President of the Brandywine BTB Coalition, Akua Asa-Awuku, Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, and Melissa Goodwin, Project Liaision for the Thriving Earth Exchange used the 1-hour meeting […]
The Brandywine, MD-TEX project launched in January 2017. BTB Coalition president Kamita Gray will work with Dr. Akua Asa-Awuku, an associate professor at the University of Maryland – College Park. Kamita and Akua will work together to assess the air quality impacts from local industrial activity and communicate those impacts to local residents to facilitate […]
Christa Hasenkopf attended the 2016 AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, CA to present a poster highlighting recent accomplishments and next steps for OpenAQ. Click here to download her poster! Stories from OpenAQ, a Global and Grassroots Open Air Quality Community Air pollution, responsible for more deaths each year than HIV/AIDS and malaria, combined, […]
The population of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota possesses one the highest cancer clusters among Native Americans and the United States at large. Metal contamination from well water is suspected to be a major contributor. This project will develop an understanding of the broader scale hydrology, aquifer chemistry, and geology across 2 burrows […]
