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个人空气质量追踪器--让你了解你呼吸的空气

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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.

在过去的12年中,有一个想法一直在我脑海中挥之不去:气候变化是一个事关信息的问题,而电脑会帮我们解决这个问题。
I went from data science to climate policy research, from tech to public service,
我从数据科学转向气候政策研究,又从科技转向公共服务,
in pursuit of better data to avoid the wasted energy, resources, opportunities that lead to runaway carbon emissions.
只为了追求更好的数据,以避免因浪费能源、资源和机会导致的碳排放失控。
Until one day, running in the streets with a friend, it hit me:
直到某一天,当我和朋友一起在街上跑步时,我突然想到:
the same cars, factories, power plants whose emissions are wrecking our climate over time
那些汽车、工厂、发电厂,长期来看,它们排放的废气正在破坏我们的气候,
also release harmful, local pollutants that threaten our health right here and right now.
同时它们还在当地排放有毒污染物,此时此刻正威胁着我们的健康。
All this time I'd focused on the long-term environmental risk
我一直专注于长期环境威胁,
when I should have been up in arms about the immediate health impact of pollutants in the air.
但我真正应该反对的却是空气中那些会立刻损害健康的污染物。
Air pollution is a burning public health crisis.
空气污染是一项非常严重的公共健康危机。
It kills seven million people every year, it costs five trillion dollars to the world economy and, worst,
每年7百万人因此而丧生,它对世界经济造成了50亿美元的损失,更糟糕的是,
it robs us of our most precious gift, the years in our lives:
它会削减对我们至关重要的东西,我们的寿命长度:
six months of life expectancy in my hometown of Paris and up to three, four, five years in parts of India and China.
它使得我家乡巴黎的人均寿命缩短6个月,使得印度和中国部分地区的人均寿命最高缩短3到5年。
And in the US, more people die from car exhaust than from car accidents.
而在美国,汽车尾气造成的死亡人数甚至高于交通事故。
So how do we protect ourselves from pollution? The reason it's difficult is an information gap.
那么,我们该如何保护自己远离污染呢?我们之所以很难保护自己,是因为信息缺失。
We simply lack the data to understand our exposure.
我们缺少关于周围环境的信息。
And that's because the way we monitor air quality today is designed not to help people breathe but to help governments govern.
因为现在空气质量监测系统的目的并非保证人们的呼吸质量,而是帮助政府进行监管。
Most major cities operate networks of air-quality monitoring stations like this one in London,
大多数城市都有空气质量监测站,就像伦敦的这个,
to decide when to cut traffic or when to shut down factories.
用来决定在什么时候进行交通管制,或是让工厂停工。
And these machines are like the computers from the '60s that filled entire rooms.
这些机器就像是60年代的电脑,能占据整个房间。
They're incredibly precise but incredibly large, heavy, costly
它们非常精准,但是体积庞大,十分笨重,价格昂贵,
so much that you can only deploy just a few of them, and they cannot move.
因为这些原因,你只能部署有限的几台,而且无法灵活的移动它们。
So to governments, air pollution looks like this. But for the rest of us, air quality looks like this.
所以在政府眼中,空气污染只是屏幕上的几个点,但对于其他人而言,空气污染到处都是。
It changes all the time: hour by hour, street by street, up to eight times within a single city block.
空气质量时刻都在变化:每个小时,每条街道,在一个街区中变化就有八次之多。
And even more from indoor to outdoor.
如果你算上市内和户外,变化次数就更多了。
So unless you happen to be walking right next to one of those stations, they just cannot tell you what you breathe.
除非你正好走过一个监测站,不然你无法得知自己呼吸的空气质量。
So what would environmental protection look like if it was designed for the age of the smartphone?
如果它被设计用于智能手机,环境保护会变成什么样呢?
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.
在过去的3年中,我和我的团队研发了一项技术,通过一台手持设备来帮助你们了解当前的空气质量。
Flow is a personal air-quality tracker that you can wear with you on a backpack, a bike, a stroller.
Flow是一款个人空气追踪器,你可以把它放在包上,自行车上或是婴儿推车上。

个人空气质量追踪器--让你了解你呼吸的空气

It's packed with miniature sensors that monitor the most important pollutants in the air around you,

它内置微型传感器,能够监测你周围空气中最大的污染物,
like nitrogen oxides, the exhaust gas from cars,
例如,氮氧化物,也就是汽车尾气的主要成分,
or particulate matter that gets into your bloodstream and creates strokes and heart issues.
或是能够进入你血液造成中风和心脏疾病的悬浮颗粒。
Or volatile organic compounds, the thousands of chemicals in everyday products that we end up breathing.
亦或是挥发性有机化合物,来自日常生活中数以千计的化学产品,最终被我们吸入肺中。
And that makes this data actionable
上述的原因让这项数值具有实际的参考价值,
and helps you understand what you're breathing by telling you where and when you've been exposed to poor air quality,
能够让你了解你呼吸的空气质量,它会提醒何时何地在你周围的空气质量较差,
and that way you can make informed decisions to take action against pollution.
以帮助你做出明智的决定,行动起来,对抗污染。
You can change the products you use at home, you can find the best route to cycle to work,
你可以更换日常用品,你可以找到一条更好的上班路线,
you can run when pollution is not peaking and you can find the best park to bring your children out.
你可以选择污染较轻的时候去跑步,你还可以选择一个空气质量最好的公园带你的孩子游玩。
Over time you build better habits to decrease your exposure to pollution,
长此以往,你会养成更好的习惯,更少接触污染,
and by tracking air quality around them, cyclists, commuters, parents will also contribute to mapping air quality in their city.
不仅如此,通过监测那些骑手、通勤者和父母周围的空气质量,我们也能构建出城市空气质量地图。
So we're building more than a device, but a community.
所以我们不仅仅建造了一个设备,还构建了一个社群。
And last summer, we sent early prototypes of our technology to 100 volunteers in London,
去年夏天,我们在伦敦将原型机分发给100个志愿者,
and together they mapped air quality across 1,000 miles of sidewalk and 20 percent of all of central London.
他们的数据合起来,构建出了横跨一千英里街道和伦敦中央20%地区的空气质量图。
So our goal now is to scale this work around the world, to crowdsource data so we can map air quality on every street,
所以我们现在的目标是把这张地图扩大到全世界,收集大众信息,以采集每一条街道的空气质量信息,
to build an unprecedented database so scientists can research pollution,
来构建一个前所未有的数据库,这样科学家就可以研究污染,
and to empower citizens, civic leaders, policy makers to support clean-air policies for change. Because this can and must change.
同时鼓励市民、民间领袖和政策制定者们来支持清洁空气的政策。因为我们可以,也必须改变空气质量。
Remember cigarettes in bars? It took decades of lung cancer research and second-hand smoking studies,
你们还记得酒吧里弥漫的烟味吗?人们花费数十年对肺癌和二手烟进行研究,
but eventually, we reached a tipping point and we passed smoking-ban laws.
但最终,我们到达了临界点,通过了禁烟法案。
We must reach the same tipping point for air quality and I believe we will.
我们必须达到空气质量的临界点,而我相信我们会做到。
In the past couple years alone, governments have fined carmakers record amounts for cheating on emission standards.
仅在过去的几年中,政府就对那些不遵守排放标准的汽车制造商征收了罚款。
Cities have passed congestion charges or built bike lanes
各大城市纷纷征收交通拥堵费,或是建造自行车,
like Paris that turned this highway, right next to my home, in the middle of the city, into a waterfront park.
例如巴黎,就把我家旁边,市中心的一条公路,改造成了沿海公园。
And now mayors around the world are thinking of banning diesel outright by 2025, 2030, 2035.
现在世界各地的市长都在考虑在2025、2030、2035年前逐步完全禁止内燃机。
But how much faster could we go, how many lives could we save?
但我们行动能有多快?我们能拯救多少条生命?
Technology alone will not solve climate change, nor will it make air pollution disappear overnight.
仅仅靠科技是无法应对气候变化的,它也无法让空气污染在一夜间消失。
But it can make the quality of our air much more transparent,
但它能让空气质量的信息公开透明,
and if we can empower people to take action to improve their own health,
并且如果我们能鼓励人们行动起来,改善自己的健康,
then together we can act to bring an end to our pollution. Thank you very much.
那么团结起来,我们就能给污染划上句号。非常感谢。

重点单词   查看全部解释    
unprecedented [ʌn'presidəntid]

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adj. 空前的,前所未有的

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precious ['preʃəs]

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adj. 宝贵的,珍贵的,矫揉造作的
adv.

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govern ['gʌvən]

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vt. 统治,支配,管理,规定
vi. 统治,

 
transparent [træns'perənt]

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adj. 透明的,明显的,清晰的

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protection [prə'tekʃən]

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n. 保护,防卫

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immediate [i'mi:djət]

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adj. 立即的,即刻的,直接的,最接近的

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informed [in'fɔ:md]

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adj. 见多识广的 v. 通告,告发 vbl. 通告,

 
scale [skeil]

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n. 鳞,刻度,衡量,数值范围
v. 依比例决

 
sidewalk ['said.wɔ:k]

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n. 人行道
=pavement(英)

 
volatile ['vɔlətail]

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adj. 挥发性的,反复无常的,易变的,易爆的 n. 挥

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