Adapting to Climate Threats in Aguascalientes

I spent two months in Aguascalientes, Mexico working with local researchers at the Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE) to understand how to make climate science more accessible and relevant at the local level improve adaptation practices. During my trip, I interviewed government officials and community members to identify what climate information would help them make better climate adaptation decisions. Additionally, I wanted to know how local communities, whose local knowledge can help inform climate models of prediction, can participate more actively in the climate studies and strategy development in Aguascalientes. This experience taught me to have a lot of patience, not everything happens according to plan. It also taught me to trust my instincts when seeking study participants, as they can often be found in unexpected places. Finally, it alerted me to the relevance of small cities to global climate action. While we are still collecting and analyzing data, our interviews revealed the gravity of the lack of local climate data that contributes to the overall government inaction and lack of awareness. We believe this study will inform a new protocol that facilitates citizen involvement in climate adaption and policy creation, and guide climate data collection that is relevant for local communities.