Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?

#101

Post by user7878 » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 7:25 AM UTC

bjourne wrote: post #90

ppseafield wrote: post #22

Reduce your meat consumption or go vegetarian or vegan. A major cause of deforestation is to grow corn / soybeans to feed to livestock. The forests, natural carbon sinks, are lost, and the livestock increase the amount of methane in the atmosphere. It takes 9 times the amount of land to make beef vs. growing plants. It uses a lot more freshwater to grow the food, and much more to give to the animals.

I've been wanting to become a vegetarian for some time to reduce my carbon footprint. But it is so hard. Do you or any other vegetarians have some tips for lazy hackers like me? Thing is, it is really easy to eat two burgers for lunch (costs 2€ at McD) and it is quite healthy. I have not found any vegetarian options that are similarly convenient, cheap and arguably healthy.

I am Vegetarian. It is all about the local food tradition and balancing. We must follow local food tradition to survive and healthy. I am belong to India where there are people have different food habits region and religon wise. Best of vegeterian food habits are followed by Jain fellows (https://www.jainworld.com/education/level1/lesson07.htm)

Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?

#102

Post by cimmanom » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 10:35 AM UTC

piocho wrote: post #41

diafygi wrote: post #29

> Is there anything I, a normal person, can do to actually help? Absolutely. I work in cleantech, and you should, too! Solar and wind are economical, so now the biggest issue is scaling them up. That means tons and tons of problem solving, which means great engineering jobs! If you think about it, the switch to renewables means we need to deal with situations where the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing, ye…

> Absolutely. I work in cleantech, and you should, too! Solar and wind are economical, so now the biggest issue is scaling them up. That means tons and tons of problem solving, which means great engineering jobs! Economical right. But can it replace nuclear power plants ? Because we need a LOT of power (datacenter, electric cars ?).

Does it have to replace them entirely in order to be worthwhile?

Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?

#103

Post by cimmanom » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 10:44 AM UTC

ppseafield wrote: post #75

glastra wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about environmentally conscious farming? I mean pastured, free-range, etc. Also, what would you say is the difference between massive industrial plantations intended to feed livestock vs those intended to feed humans with a less than ideal diet?

There's literally not enough land on the planet for everyone to eat free range beef. As for the plantations: if we all cut out livestock from our diets, there'd be 9x less of them. And what does "ideal" mean?

There’s enough land on the planet for everyone to eat free range beef. Just not in large quantities or very often.

That said, free range solves some of the problems with factory farming but it is not the solution to climate change caused by meat production and consumption.

Either way, even if for health reasons you’re not going to become entirely vegetarian, it is possible for most to reduce their meat consumption. A quarter to half a pound of meat daily (or worse, at every meal) is a weird American expectation that’s totally unnecessary.

Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?

#104

Post by ishikawa » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 1:12 PM UTC

y3k wrote: post #96

ishikawa wrote: post #52

Power companies have a great demand for software. By working with green companies you are helping the world get cleaner. By working with coal or gas-fired Power plants to manage, control and reduce their emissions, you are also helping the world. I have worked for the past 13 years doing that.

That sounds ideal. Any suggestion about where to start looking at? Sadly in my current location neither goverment nor companies have too much interest on going green.

You can search for SCADA companies as well as others working with analytics for wind power. For the second you will find more in Europe. Some names, to mention a few, are: Greenbyte, CNTRAL (not a typo), Inductive Automation, PCVue, Elipse Software, scadaHUB, Osisoft and Canary. Where are you and what do you do?

Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?

#105

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Nov 02, 2018, 10:53 AM UTC

abainbridge wrote: post #92

glastra wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From your first sentence, I understand that feeding everyone in the planet is a priority. You also assert that, if we move to a plant-based diet, we would need 9x less plantations^. Do you believe those plantations will be abandoned? Or, rather, that they will be used to feed humans and thus lead to an overabundance of food and a 9x population growth? I believe that "ideal" is nowhere near a diet requiring supplement…

9x less plantations: 0.58 cows per hectare - http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/62085 274 kg meat on a cow - https://www.vidarholen.net/contents/junk/cow.html 10470 kJ of food energy per kilo of beef - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef 1000 days to rear a cow - https://www.withouthotair.com/c13/page_77.shtml Therefore 0.58 * 274 * 10470 / 1000 = 607 kJ of cow, per day, per hectare. In comparison, wheat y…

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