Climate change is already an everyday reality across the Global South.
Communities already living in our planet’s lowest income nations are often the ones who are facing the worst climate threats. A changing world is no longer just a future fear for many households already living in extreme resource scarcity.
But scientists in vulnerable nations are often those with the fewest resources to monitor pressing threats.
The most cutting-edge satellite technologies for environmental monitoring often remain locked in well-resourced institutions in high income nations.
While free and open data access tools now exist, many under-resourced scientists across the Global South lack tutorials for these technologies that are delivered at their pace and tailored to their regional contexts.
They also lack sustained fellowship and mentorship opportunities to ensure successful technological understanding and application beyond just the training stage.
When low-resource scientists lack these technologies, we all lose out.
The scope of the climate crisis is so large that we simply can’t afford to exclude any promising voices from the global conversation, leaving the groundbreaking research opportunities only to the select few.
And like any humanitarian challenge, the most promising climate solutions are developed by those most familiar with the local nuances of the crisis.
To limit their potential is to stifle the promise of a new generation of innovation and progress.