Giving Day Last Call: Help us REPLACE a Corrupt System, Not Just Fight It
Only THREE Hours Left to Contribute
This "Giving Day," Downwinders is trying to raise $6500 to fund a full 72 hours of airborne investigation by our pollution-sniffing drones.
From 6 am to 12 Midnight tonight, contributions of just $25 or more to Downwinders can get matched or expanded by the Communities Foundation of Texas.
OUR GOAL: TO REPLACE THE STATUS QUO, NOT JUST FIGHT IT
We're talking a lot about our drone project today because, let's face it, drones are tech-sexy!
But drone monitoring is just one part of a plan to replace the State of Texas as a source of air quality information for DFW residents.
Just like everything else in the digital world, the cost of reliable air pollution electronic sensors is coming down. What used to cost millions of dollars now costs hundreds of thousands, and tomorrow might cost just thousands.
It's the same reason we were able to clone the state's air computer model and use it in ways the state didn't want it used. That would have been impossible a decade ago. But the price of supercomputing is going down and it allowed us to usurp a function for citizens that was previously only accessible to state engineers.
Now we want to repeat that success.
The state only operates a total of 20 air monitors in North Texas.
Five are boundary monitors – far outside the central cities. That leaves just 15 monitors for 7 million people inside the metro area.
Working with area universities, Downwinders wants to deploy a grassroots citizen-based monitor network that would connect hundreds of monitors across the DFW area.
This network would not only warn you about Smog, but Particulate Matter and Air Toxics as well – something the state network isn't built to do.
The goal is nothing less than to usurp the state's job once again – and once again do it better.
It's important to us not only to fight the Good Fights that need fighting, but to change the system itself as we win those fights.
If you like this strategy, please contribute today to make sure we're around to implement it.
Thank you for your consideration.
