This TED Talk features environmental entrepreneur Romaine Lecombe, recorded live at TED 2018.

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, because 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.

Air pollution is a burning public health crisis. It kills 7 million people every year. It costs

$5 trillion 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.

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.

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