LET’S ROAM!
SCIENCE
NATURE
COMMUNITY
ACTION
WHAT IS ROAM?
Rural communities are already seeing the impact of climate change around the world. This includes many rural communities in Ireland, whose daily lives are affected. Their lived experiences mean they have important expertise that we should listen to. ROAM is a small research project from the University of Galway that seeks to do exactly this. Between July – September 2023, our research team visited communities in rural Clare, Cork and Galway with an aim to listen and learn.
The events ran for 2 hours in local venues, sharing questions and inviting discussion about climate. We explored how rural climate issues are prioritised, using Our Rural Future as a starting point. The discussions about citizen science led directly to Caomhnú.
WHY WE WANT TO ROAM
Good science communication relies on trust, so we want to share our motivations for this work. We want to work with rural communities for three key reasons:
We want to platform their views and voices. We worry that we only hear the loudest or best connected voices in the media.
We want to ensure we include their perspectives in our future work. We want to work with these communities in a collaborative way.
We want to identify potentially relevant citizen science projects to empower them. Rural communities have important questions about climate change that we should explore.
GET INVOLVED
If you are interested in learning more about our results from ROAM, contact Dr Jessamyn Fairfield: jessamyn.fairfield@universityofgalway.ie