"An informed citizenry builds a better world" - Brazilian scientist's work praised by local press

"EducAir: raising awareness among populations about the risks of smoke from fires," a postdoctoral study led by Dr. Igor Oliveira Ribeiro at the Universidade do Estado do Amazonas (UEA), has garnered significant media coverage from its initial phase.

Its innovative and highly successful approach in an alarming environmental context has been widely appreciated and featured in specialized press and mainstream media.

According to "Jornal do Commercio," a daily newspaper based in Manaus, it is an "unprecedented environmental monitoring system [...] capable of low-cost monitoring of the air quality we breathe, as well as the occurrence of fires."

The national magazine "Revista Exame" applauds the vision of this project and identifies it as having the potential to "contribute to changing the game for future generations in the Amazonas region, who face the great threat of fires and the impacts of their emissions on air quality." The magazine also highlights the project's ability to "awaken environmental awareness" among young people.

Meanwhile, an article published by "aCritica," the most widely read local newspaper, emphasizes the democratization of knowledge facilitated by the project: "The program is designed to raise awareness among Amazonian students about how human actions positively and negatively affect air quality. By highlighting this knowledge and information about what we breathe, we hope to create a shared understanding of the right paths to take... The challenges to combat this reality of air pollution and the degradation of the Amazon are significant, and education remains a key piece of this puzzle," concludes the newspaper.

A brief recap of the facts: Igor Oliveira Ribeiro (Brazil), a recipient of the IPCC Fellowship Program from 2019 to 2021—supported by the Cuomo Foundation—wrote a doctoral thesis titled "The Impacts of Forest Fires on Air Quality in a Tropical Megacity." Subsequently, the researcher presented us with this new project, "EducAir," an extension of his thesis that serves the communities. Since January 2022, Dr. Oliveira Ribeiro and his team of researchers have once again received support from the Cuomo Foundation to successfully carry out this initiative.

The project's implementation involves deploying air quality sensors throughout the state of Amazonas. These devices are assembled on-site by the team leading the project. The pilot phase will see the installation of these devices in eight public schools in the city of Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas state. Additionally, a thousand students from these schools will receive training to familiarize themselves with the tools and scientific concepts necessary to analyze the data themselves. The captured information is accessible in real-time on the online platform SALVA, also designed and maintained by the team of researchers led by Dr. Igor Oliveira Ribeiro.