Involving people in field research offers opportunities for people to be deeply immersed in science and complex issues such as climate change. Developing and exploiting these sorts of opportunities is now seen as an important avenue to developing a constituency that can make better and more informed decisions with regards to the environment. Earthwatch Institute pursues a model founded on active involvement of people working together with scientists in field research to help collect data and learn about environmental sustainability. Predicating this model is a serious commitment by scientists and participants in terms of time and resources to ensuring that the needs of both scientists for reliable data and participants for a meaningful experience are met. Earthwatch has developed a diversity of programs that seek to engage global audiences in climate change research. One of its newer programs is the HSBC Climate Partnership, a five-year global program on climate change to inspire action by individuals, businesses and governments (2007-2012). Projects focusing on the relationship between forest management and response to climate change have been initiated in the US, UK, Brazil, India and China. Two components of the program will be presented that span a range of engagement opportunities from a deeper but more resource intensive experience to a more accessible but entry level experience. The more intensive program involves citizen scientists who spend one to two weeks at one of the regional climate centers working alongside leading scientists to perform forest research by day, and participate each evening in an interactive education program on the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of climate change. A second program involves citizen scientists for a day at a site close to urban centres.
Results/Conclusions
We will present lessons learned when developing this global program and some results from an evaluation of learning by participants in the more intensive learning and field research programs as well as the single day experiences. An emphasis will be placed on the differences and similarities across regions for both ecologists and citizens with respect to global climate change.
