So for the past 12 years, I've been obsessed with this idea that climate change is an information issue that computers will help us fight. I went from data science to climate policy research, from tech to public service, in pursuit of better data to avoid the wasted energy, resources, opportunities that lead to runaway carbon emissions. Until one day, running in the streets with a friend, it hit me: the same cars, factories, power plants whose emissions are wrecking our climate over time also release harmful, local pollutants that threaten our health right here and right now. All this time I'd focused on the long-term environmental risk when I should have been up in arms about the immediate health impact of pollutants in the air.
(掌聲) 過去十二年間, 我一直對這個想法很著迷: 氣候變遷是一個資訊議題, 電腦能協助我們對抗它。 我從資料科學, 轉換到氣候政策研究, 從技術轉到公眾服務, 去追求更好的資料, 以協助避免浪費 能源、資源、機會, 導致碳排放失控。 直到有一天,我和朋友 在街上跑步時,我突然想到: 這些汽車、工廠、電廠, 隨著時間,它們排放的廢氣 在破懷我們的氣候, 同樣的,它們也會 釋放有害的當地污染物, 此時在這裡就會威脅我們的健康。 我一直都把焦點放在 長期的環境風險, 其實我早該努力對抗 空氣中的污染物 對健康造成的立即影響。
Air pollution is a burning public health crisis. It kills seven million people every year, it costs five trillion dollars to the world economy and, worst, it robs us of our most precious gift, the years in our lives: six months of life expectancy in my hometown of Paris and up to three, four, five years in parts of India and China. And in the US, more people die from car exhaust than from car accidents.
空氣污染是迫切的公眾健康危機。 每年有七百萬人因此而死, 世界經濟花了五兆美元在這上面, 最糟糕的是,它奪走了 我們最珍貴的禮物, 我們的生命年限: 在我的家鄉巴黎, 奪走了六個月的平均壽命, 在印度和中國的部分地區, 則高達三、四、五年。 在美國,死於汽車廢氣的人數 多於死於車禍的人數。
So how do we protect ourselves from pollution? The reason it's difficult is an information gap. We simply lack the data to understand our exposure. And that's because the way we monitor air quality today is designed not to help people breathe but to help governments govern. Most major cities operate networks of air-quality monitoring stations like this one in London, to decide when to cut traffic or when to shut down factories. And these machines are like the computers from the '60s that filled entire rooms. They're incredibly precise but incredibly large, heavy, costly -- so much that you can only deploy just a few of them, and they cannot move. So to governments, air pollution looks like this. But for the rest of us, air quality looks like this. It changes all the time: hour by hour, street by street, up to eight times within a single city block. And even more from indoor to outdoor. So unless you happen to be walking right next to one of those stations, they just cannot tell you what you breathe.
我們要如何保護自己 不受污染影響? 我們之所以很難保護自己, 是因為資訊落差。 我們就是缺乏資料, 無法了解我們的暴露狀況。 那是因為,現今我們 監控空氣品質的方式, 設計目的並不是要協助大家呼吸, 而是要協助政府管理。 大部分的主要城市,營運 空氣品質監控站網路的目的, 就像倫敦的這一個, 是要決定何時切斷交通流量 或是何時關閉工廠。 且這些機器就像是六○年代的電腦, 佔滿了房間。 它們非常精準, 但也非常巨大、笨重、昂貴—— 所以你只能夠部署幾台這種機器, 且無法移動它們。 對政府來說,空氣污染 看起來是這個樣子的。 但對我們其他人來說, 空氣污染看起來是這個樣子的。 它隨時在改變: 每小時、每條街都不一樣, 在單一街區中就可能 有高達八種變化。 室內和室外更是不同。 所以,除非你剛好走到 其中一個監控站旁邊, 它才能告訴你,你吸入的是什麼。
So what would environmental protection look like if it was designed for the age of the smartphone? So for the past three years, my team and I have been building a technology that helps you know what you breathe and fits in your hand. Flow is a personal air-quality tracker that you can wear with you on a backpack, a bike, a stroller. It's packed with miniature sensors that monitor the most important pollutants in the air around you, like nitrogen oxides, the exhaust gas from cars, or particulate matter that gets into your bloodstream and creates strokes and heart issues. Or volatile organic compounds, the thousands of chemicals in everyday products that we end up breathing. And that makes this data actionable and helps you understand what you're breathing by telling you where and when you've been exposed to poor air quality, and that way you can make informed decisions to take action against pollution.
所以,如果能夠針對 智慧手機的年代 來設計環境保護, 會變成什麼樣子? 過去三年間, 我和我的團隊 一直在打造一項技術, 來協助大家了解自己吸入了什麼, 且小到可以拿在手上。 Flow 是一台個人用的空氣品質 追蹤器,你可以帶在身上, 掛在背包上,裝在 腳踏車或嬰兒推車上。 它配有微型的感測器, 能夠監控你周圍空氣中 最重要的污染物, 比如氮氧化物、 汽車排放的廢氣, 或是會進入血液中並造成中風 和心臟問題的微粒物質。 或是易揮發的有機化合物, 日常用品當中數千種的化學物, 最後被我們吸入。 有了這些資料是可以採取行動的, 能讓你了解你吸入了什麼, 它會告訴你於何時、何處 暴露在很糟糕的空氣品質中, 這麼一來,你就可以 根據資訊做決策, 採取對抗污染的行動。
You can change the products you use at home, you can find the best route to cycle to work, you can run when pollution is not peaking and you can find the best park to bring your children out.
你可以把家中使用的產品換掉, 你可以找到騎腳踏車 上班的最佳路線, 你可以在非污染高峰的時段跑步, 你也能找到最適合 帶孩子去的公園。
Over time you build better habits to decrease your exposure to pollution, and by tracking air quality around them, cyclists, commuters, parents will also contribute to mapping air quality in their city. So we're building more than a device, but a community. And last summer, we sent early prototypes of our technology to 100 volunteers in London, and together they mapped air quality across 1,000 miles of sidewalk and 20 percent of all of central London. So our goal now is to scale this work around the world, to crowdsource data so we can map air quality on every street, to build an unprecedented database so scientists can research pollution, and to empower citizens, civic leaders, policy makers to support clean-air policies for change. Because this can and must change.
隨著時間,你會建立更好的習慣, 減少暴露在污染中的機會, 且,透過追蹤身邊的空氣品質, 騎腳踏車者、通勤者、父母 都能盡一份心力,將該城市的 空氣品質繪製在地圖上。 所以,我們創造的不只 是個裝置,也是個共同社區。 去年夏天,我們將 這項技術的初期原型發送給 倫敦的一百名自願者, 他們協力繪出了空氣品質地圖, 橫跨一千英哩的人行道, 及整個倫敦中央 20% 的地區。 我們現在的目標是要 把這項工作擴大到全世界, 將資料做群眾外包,讓我們可以 繪出每一條街的空氣品質, 建造一個史無前例的資料庫, 科學家可以用它來研究污染, 也讓公民、民間領袖、政策制訂者 能夠去支持乾淨空氣政策的變革。 因為這可以改變,也必須要改變。
Remember cigarettes in bars? It took decades of lung cancer research and second-hand smoking studies, but eventually, we reached a tipping point and we passed smoking-ban laws. We must reach the same tipping point for air quality and I believe we will. In the past couple years alone, governments have fined carmakers record amounts for cheating on emission standards. Cities have passed congestion charges or built bike lanes -- like Paris that turned this highway, right next to my home, in the middle of the city, into a waterfront park. And now mayors around the world are thinking of banning diesel outright by 2025, 2030, 2035. But how much faster could we go, how many lives could we save?
記得在酒吧的香菸嗎? 花了數十年的肺癌研究 和二手煙研究, 但,最終,我們走到了 一個臨界點,通過了禁煙法律。 對於空氣品質,我們也得走到 同樣的臨界點,我相信我們會的。 光是在過去幾年, 政府對汽車製造商假造排放標準 所開出的罰金金額就創了記錄。 有些城市通過了交通擁擠稅 或是建造了腳踏車車道—— 像巴黎,就把城市中 我家旁邊的這條公路 改成了濱水公園。 現在,全世界的市長們都在 思考要全面禁止柴油引擎, 在 2025 年、2030 年、 2035 年實施。 但,我們的動作能多快? 我們能拯救多少條性命?
Technology alone will not solve climate change, nor will it make air pollution disappear overnight. But it can make the quality of our air much more transparent, and if we can empower people to take action to improve their own health, then together we can act to bring an end to our pollution.
光靠科技是無法解決氣候變遷的, 科技也無法讓空氣污染瞬間消失。 但它可以讓我們的 空氣品質更透明許多, 若我們能讓大家能夠去採取行動, 以改善他們自己的健康, 那麼,我們同心協力, 便能終結我們的污染。
Thank you very much.
非常謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)