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((Aclima is an environmental tech company that monitors pollutants at a hyper local level. VOA’s Aaron Fedor visited the group in Oakland, California and talked with a co-founder about how their work is helping tackle health issues and climate change.))
Content TypePackage
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/ScriptCONNECT Cleaner Air (TV)
HEADLINE: Monitoring Pollution One Block at a Time
TEASER: Tech company helps diagnosis air at the hyper local level
PUBLISHED AT: 08/08/2022
BYLINE: Aaron Fedor
DATELINE: Oakland, California
VIDEOGRAPHER: Aaron Fedor
PRODUCER: Kathleen McLaughlin, Kyle Dubeil, Zdenko Novacki
COURTESIES:
SCRIPT EDITORS: EA
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO __
TRT: 2:40
VID APPROVED BY: EA
TYPE: VPKGF
EDITOR NOTES: ))
((Eds: This is a self-narrated feature. There is an accompanying music track.))
((INTRO))
((Aclima is an environmental tech company that monitors pollutants at a hyper local level. VOA’s Aaron Fedor visited the group in Oakland, California and talked with a co-founder about how their work is helping tackle health issues and climate change.))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Davida Herzl, Co-founder & CEO, Aclima))
What I realized, I think growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, sort of measure what you manage was a mantra in business.
((Courtesy: Aclima))
And yet, when it comes to climate change, we're actually missing the measurement infrastructure to understand where emissions are coming from and who they're impacting. So, we set out to solve that.
((Davida Herzl, Co-founder & CEO, Aclima))
We now know that we have a climate crisis and that emissions have added up to global levels that are historic and unsustainable. But all of those emissions come from local sources. And so, we have to understand them at the local level in order to be able to take action to address them.
((Courtesy: Aclima))
And so, hyper-local monitoring enables us to understand where those pollution hotspots are and enables us to take really targeted action to address those sources of emissions and to protect communities and protect public health at that local level.
((Melissa Lunden, Chief Scientist, Aclima))
Our mobile sensor network is fascinating in that involves a lot of different aspects of science and technology, all the way from how we design the device, which incorporates a number of sort of the less expensive, small scale sensors that really allow us to shrink big research equipment down to a small scale that you can use in cars to how do we get, how do we design that device and how do we operate the device, so we can get the kind of data and data quality we need, all the way to then how do you design, how do you sample within a car while the car is moving? And then, where do you send the cars to make sure that you're getting what we call a representative sample on any particular road or street or part of town?
((Davida Herzl, Co-founder & CEO, Aclima))
One of the things that we've done over the course of the years is partnered, really deeply,
((Courtesy: West Oakland Indicators Project))
with environmental justice organizations and advocates. And Ms. Margaret is one of the nation's leading advocates. And several years ago, we teamed up with her to do a groundbreaking study that, for the first time, proved that air pollution is hyper-local, that it can vary from one block to the next by up to 800 percent. And the data that we generated with her and with other academics in West Oakland was really groundbreaking. It was the first time that that had ever happened.
((NATS: Davida Herzl and Driver))
((Davida Herzl))
And do they test all the new equipment with you or…?
((Driver, Aclima))
Yes, yeah.
((Davida Herzl))
You are the guinea pig.
((Davida Herzl, Co-founder & CEO, Aclima))
I think, we have the opportunity to bring radical transparency on a problem that has never really been seen at this scale before. We're literally making the invisible visible. Doing that, I think, there's an opportunity to really quickly change the game on climate, on air pollution and to finally fix these problems that are impacting so many millions of people around the world.
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)Oakland, California
Embargo DateAugust 8, 2022 17:23 EDT
BylineAaron Fedor , VOA News
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
