Fostering an Informed Citizenry

NM has a rapidly growing population and is located in an extremely arid environment already subject to water shortages, fire, and forest die-off associated with prolonged and recurring droughts. The exacerbation of these problems associated with changing climate regimes only enhances the need to communicate effectively with the State’s citizenry. Specific challenges include: providing up-to-date and understandable information to citizens in the large municipalities which are located at long distances from each other; communicating climate change knowledge to citizens in rural communities; and providing access to recent and relevant data and information that can be used by scientists, educators, students, decision-makers, and the public.

NM EPSCoR’s outreach and communication agenda seeks to develop a citizenry informed about climate change and its impacts on the state of New Mexico. The programs were designed to reach a large and diverse population in both urban and rural areas and to hopefully serve as a national model.

New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS) will be the lead partner for Public Outreach and Communication. Uniquely positioned as the state’s science museum, NMMNHS has 230,000 annual visitors to its Albuquerque facility and serves an additional 40,000 people through programs, both on-site and through outreach. NMMNHS also has capacity in communicating climate change issues to a public audience, currently leading the informal science programming for Polar-Palooza (2007-2009).