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Community Leader Highlight: Mirella Gallardo and Rafael Schmitt

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.

     

Community Leader Highlight: Mirella Gallardo and Rafael Schmitt

The article below is in both English and Spanish Community Leader Highlight: Mirella Gallardo and Rafael Schmitt Established in 1995 to help Andean mountain communities like Miraflores improve their livelihoods, Instituto de Montaña develops community-driven and inclusive adaptation plans in a participatory manner. The project “Conservation, enhancement and sustainable management of the Yanacancha – Huaquis […]

“A Long Way With Many Bends”: Water quality in Conodoguinet Creek, Pennsylvania

Asking tough questions about water quality, a Pennsylvania team discovers the power of a pivot  Encompassing more than 500 square miles of central Pennsylvania, the Conodoguinet Creek watershed provides drinking water and recreational opportunities to nearly 65,000 residents. Visitors from all over come to fish in its world-renowned limestone trout streams, wading along banks where […]

Stronger Together: EPIC-N and Thriving Earth Exchange Collaborate to Expand Community-driven Science

The Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities – Network (EPIC-N) and AGU’s Thriving Earth Exchange have been working together since 2018 and formalized the partnership with a Memorandum of Understanding in 2021. Today, the organizations are building on their shared commitment to community-driven problem-solving by broadening access to data, expertise and networks to help even […]

Where Science Meets Spirit: Reflections from the FL-iCAN! Assembly

By Aryaana Khan In September 2024, Thriving Earth Exchange launched a project in St. Petersburg, Florida focused on hosting an assembly of interfaith climate actors. This sixth assembly of faith-inspired climate actions focused on strengthening and expanding the network of people and organizations of goodwill working towards transitioning Florida to a blue-green economy. The assembly […]

Capacity Collaborative Celebrates Successes  

The Capacity Collaborative (TCC), a non-profit built around bolstering resilience in rural communities, is one of four AGU Thriving Earth Exchange Community Science Hubs. Now in its second year of community science projects, TCC’s Southeast Hub continues to make meaningful progress, yielding a growing number of successes and valuable lessons learned. “The AGU TEX program […]

Miraflores: Community of Yauyos Province of Peru

The article below is in both English and Spanish Welcome to Miraflores Miraflores is a very small town in the mountainous Yauyos Province of Peru. Its residents are highly dependent on farming and livestock, but climate change has upended their lives and their livelihoods, sending severe droughts and deglaciation, damaging floods, and unpredictable hot and […]

Fidecoagua: Community of Coatepec, México​​

. The article below is in both English and Spanish A magical place Coatepec is a small region in the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is known as the “coffee capital of Mexico,” because its steep hills and lush landscape are perfect for growing coffee beans. Residents also farm, fish, and cater to the many […]

Spanish-Language Inclusion at Thriving Earth Exchange

In May of 2023, Thriving Earth Exchange started a new initiative focused on Spanish-language inclusion. As part of this effort, Marina Cox was hired to support Spanish-speaking communities, translate materials, and provide general guidance and expertise for being more inclusive of Spanish-speaking participants. We sat down with her recently to learn more about this initiative. […]

AGU Speaks to Environmental Journalists at Metcalf Institute Workshop

By Kimberly Cartier From June 3 to 7, ten environmental journalists were invited as fellows to the University of Rhode Island’s Metcalf Institute for an immersive workshop to learn about hydrology, climate science, and water-related justice issues. The journalists—freelancers and staff journalists; local beat reporters and reporters at international outlets; writers, photographers, and videographers—came from […]

2023 Year in Review

2023 Thriving Earth Exchange Year in Review 2023 marked 10 years since Thriving Earth Exchange began with the bold premise that science should put communities first. Over the years, the program’s small but determined staff and leadership experimented with different models of putting this idea into practice, learning from both the successes and the failures, […]

Community Science Project at Anemage River – An update

In 2021, Thriving Earth Exchange’s Natasha Udu-gama took the Hano Wene Indonesian Foundation through our approach to community science. Hano Wene works in Indonesia to address education through a holistic approach that includes not only formal education but also bringing electricity to communities, clean water, and food security. Recently, they teamed up with former Thriving Earth Exchange Community […]

2022 Thriving Earth Exchange Year in Review

2022 was a year in which community science stepped beyond its origins as a somewhat radical “new approach” and emerged as an ever more central and respected part of the mainstream discourse about how to address the challenges of our time. With climate change, pollution and environmental degradation, and issues of disenfranchisement and marginalization increasingly […]

Community Insights: Mapping the pollution to create the solution

The Tar Creek in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, runs directly through a 40-square-mile Superfund site, full of giant mounds of toxic mining waste—a fine, white sand-and-gravel mix known as “chat,” easily blown away by the breeze—that is polluting the entire county’s drinking water, yards and fields.  Local Environmental Action Demanded (LEAD) Agency, a community-led non-profit environmental […]

The Power of Community Science

Community science is the collaboration of researchers and community members to propose solutions to problems usually pertaining to public health. The relationship between these two parties can be difficult to build within the time limits of each research project. In order for researchers to gain the type of access they need into the community there […]

Community Science Role Models

Who are your role models? Why? Take a second to think of what makes a good role model in the scientific community. The first things I think of are patience and a commitment to learning, two traits that Christine Wiedinmyer exhibits. When I called Christine to ask her about her research, she was confused as […]

Weather Forecasting in India and Bangladesh

How you say ‘1.5 inches’ can save a life. It can save packages of seeds and herds of cattle. The language used to deliver a forecast is important. The timing of when these forecasts are given is equally important for people that are affected by extreme weather. In places like Bangladesh and India, the communities […]

White Earth Nation: Water Quality