London's Clean Air Champions Need Your Help

Sarah Jayne Bell
By Sarah Jayne Bell Last edited 99 months ago
London's Clean Air Champions Need Your Help
These kids want clean air. So do we.

Londoners are getting sick of breathing polluted air. They're taking to the streets with their diffusion tubes and particulate monitors, and they need your help.

Mapping for Change has been supporting communities to monitor and map air pollution in London since 2009. They want to expand the number of groups they can work with, but they need more kit and more people to do it. Now they're crowdfunding a new programme of community air pollution monitoring.

According to Muki Haklay, director of Mapping for Change, the programme will help Londoners to make personal, political and practical changes. With better knowledge of local air quality, people can make better choices about their walking and cycling routes. They can also lobby TfL and local authorities to change bus routes and traffic. Muki told us "In the run up to the mayoral election this demonstrates that lots of people care, and it will become an issue that will be part of the campaign."

The crowdfunding campaign works on several levels; at a basic level it will provide simple diffusion tubes for communities come together to monitor and map nitrogen dioxide. With more money, Mapping for Change will build a library of more expensive equipment to measure particular matter.

Find out more and pledge a contribution at Mapping for Change's crowdfunding page.

Coming to a lamp post near you? Diffusion tubes used to monitor poisonous nitrogen dioxide in our air.

Last Updated 01 December 2015