Leonardo DiCaprio funds air monitoring system
BRAWLEY — Renowned Hollywood actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio announced a $100,000 grant to Brawley-based Comite Civico del Valle for its air monitoring system recently.
The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF) distributed $20 million to more than 100 organizations as part of six areas of emphasis for the foundation: climate change, wildlife and landscape conservation, marine life and ocean conservation, innovative solutions, indigenous rights, and the California program. Comite Civico, a non-profit organization, launched an air monitor system about a year ago and features 40 air monitors installed across the Valley.
Comite Civico’s air monitoring system — officially named IVAN (Identifying Violations Affecting Neighborhoods) — includes 40 air monitors installed in the Valley and provides real-time data on the levels of particulate matter in the air.
Comite Civico was one of a dozen organizations that received funding through LDF’s California Program, which distributed $1.4 million in the state alone.
“We’re deeply honored and grateful to the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation for making us a grant recipient —this represents an opportunity to sustain and maintain the (air monitoring) network,” said Luis Olmedo, executive director of Comite Civico del Valle.
“Coming from such a leader on Climate Change as DiCaprio, it’s a message of what is happening in the Imperial Valley … and is connected to so many other issues globally.”
The grant will allow Comite Civico to acquire new air monitors, some of which will be used as replacements, while others will be installed at new locations.
Olmedo and his team began their efforts a few years ago, thanks to a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for nearly $2 million.
That initial grant allowed Comite to begin its monitoring efforts, however, that grant ends next month and Comite Civico is currently working to sustain and strengthen its air monitoring network.
“IVAN is shifting the conversation in California.” said Megan Moore, the California Program manager for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.
“The intention is to institutionalize this type of monitoring as the most feasible approach to getting real-time information to communities on the changing climate, fill data gaps by more affordably deploying greater monitoring density, and collect data that can be used for performance measures for programs that are intended to reduce greenhouse gases and to measure real-time results of climate investments in disadvantaged communities.”
One of the biggest emphasis of the IVAN network is to provide additional data that truly reflects the impact of emissions coming from Mexicali and the emissive dust at the Salton Sea.
The new grant comes at a critical point since the Salton Sea is expected to recede at a faster rate starting next year, once the Imperial Irrigation District ceases to deliver mitigation water.
“This round of grants comes at a critical time,” said Terry Tamminen the chief executive officer at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in a statement. “With a lack of political leadership and continued evidence that climate change is growing worse with record-breaking heatwaves and storms, we believe we need to do as much as we can now before it is too late.”
Olmedo said it was the foundation which reached out to his organization to find out more about the air monitoring network.
Comite Civico arranged a site visit in which it explained how the network functions and conveyed an immediate interest from the foundation.
In addition to the grant, Comite Civico is continuing to develop partnerships — including the California Air Resources Board — which could potentially provide permanent funding.
Those partnerships could include IVAN being implemented in other disadvantaged communities.
The latest round of funding by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation allocated funds to a wide range of environmental concerns.
Although the foundation is focused on funding bigger organizations, Olmedo is pleased the foundation took an interest on IVAN.
“It’s very important, our entire ecosystems is in danger. He is trying to address the entire spectrum,” Olmedo said. “The fact he looked at our environmental justice is important and also very encouraging that he sees our work as a meaningful component in the efforts to combat the effects of climate change.”
“He really brings a message of hope, he is someone we see as using his public image in a positive way to be a messenger of hope in climate change.”