The Thriving Earth Exchange’s Seminar at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
NOAA Central Library, 2nd Floor, SSMC#3, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland
Tuesday 24 February, 12 – 1pm
Anticipating a Changing Climate:
Adapting Traditional Ecological Calendars in the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan-Tajikistan
[ezcol_1half]
Abstract: In the Pamir Mountains, which span the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, small-scale farmers and herders are key food producers. Traditionally, they have used calendars based on historical climate cues, such as first budding of a plant or the last day of snow cover, to anticipate weather patterns and coordinate planting and harvesting with seasonal cycles. The calendars vary from valley to valley because they are well tuned to small-scale elevation and geographic differences. As a result of colonialism and violent conflict throughout the twentieth century, the calendars fell out of use. How can we help farmers incorporate climate predictions into their traditional farming timing?
To answer this question, AGU’s Thriving Earth Exchange (TEX) is working with MIT’s Climate Colab to host an online challenge. The goal of this challenge is to find ways to combine the villagers’ traditional knowledge with scientific data in order to adapt the calendars and incorporate the effects of climate change. Click here for contest details.
[/ezcol_1half]
[ezcol_1half_end]
Bio of Speaker: Rajul (Raj) Pandya is the Program Director AGU’s Thriving Earth Exchange. TEX connects scientists, communities, and sponsors and helps them work together to develop solutions that have local impact and global implications. TEX advances community science by providing tools to design and launch projects for community priorities in climate change, natural hazards and natural resources.
Prior to working with AGU, Raj worked as the Director of Education and Outreach at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Raj has been lucky enough to lead internships and mentor students, teach in college and high school, do research with communities internationally and in the US, and work on digital libraries. He has published in areas including thunderstorms, student learning, workforce development, diversity in science, citizen-science, and public health.
[/ezcol_1half_end]
Open to the Public
Anyone can attend the seminar, just be sure to bring either a US passport or a driver’s license from Maryland, District of Columbia or Virginia.
View Remotely
The seminar will be available to view remotely, meaning you can see and hear the presentation from your home! Please visit the link here and follow the instructions under General Information: for remote access via webinar and complete the registration form to have access to the session. Please remember, registration only opens a few minutes before the session is due to begin.
Can’t Make it?
The seminar presentation and audio will be recorded and open to the public. The link to the recorded session will be made available after the seminar, so watch this space!
Get Social
Make the most of the seminar session and read key highlights by following @thrivingearth – ask questions of your own using hashtag #climatechat
