By William Yardley for the Los Angeles Times

Measure twice, cut once, they say. Unless you are trying to save the planet. In that case, measure and cut constantly.

Rising calls to create cleaner air and limit climate change are driving a surge in new technology for measuring air emissions and other pollutants — a data revolution that is opening new windows into the micro-mechanics of environmental damage.

We’re in this moment of a huge growth in curiosity — of people trying to understand their environment. That coincides with the technology to do something more.

The momentum for new monitoring tools is rooted in increasingly stringent regulations, including California’s cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions, and newly tightened federal standards and programs to monitor drought and soil contamination.