Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 105 posts

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

#21

Post by kat »

DrNuke wrote: post #8

May you volunteer a couple of hours afterwork in your week to some environmental charity at local or regional level? As a STEM professional very able with computers, your skills might help a lot without touching hard-nosed activism or politics.

This so much. Something like setting up mailchimp for a nonprofit, setting up a crm system to track volunteer data, how to read google analytics for their webpage, or even as simple as getting email signatures setup for the office workers. I've spent a lot of time proving basic IT support and basic "this is how you effiently use a email" types of deals.

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

#22

Post by ppseafield »

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.

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

#23

Post by y3k »

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.

Thank you for your advice.

We're already doing that. Not gonna lie, we love meat, but understand it isn't the best choice for the planet, so far we've reduced our meat consumption about 50%.

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

#24

Post by y3k »

justaaron wrote: post #14

devise an alternative to "proof of work" blockchain ledgers. cryptocurrencies are sucking down electricity at a rate larger than many nations, and all for literally doing NOTHING useful... (majorly non eco activity...)

This is exactly why I stopped following the crypto news.

I got interested a lot about BTC at the beginning, but then after reading reports about electricity consumption decided to not be part of that.

I think the downside doesn't come from the blockchain technology as-is, but the mining part of cryptocurrency.

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

#25

Post by y3k »

dreamdu5t wrote: post #13

Host with AWS. They are 50% powered by renewables and have a long-term goal of 100%. They’ve also helped build solar and wind farms generating 250+ gigawatts of renewable energy.

I didn't know about their 50% renewables, but I do host everything (and the company I work for as well) in AWS.

Thanks.

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

#28

Post by throwaway9382 »

If you're a typical tech employee/well-to-do person - travel less. Air travel is likely the single largest component of your carbon footprint, and with high quality communication tools and good management, travel for work is not as important. (Plus I think if folks introspected they'd admit fun is a significant motivation for their work trips.)

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

#29

Post by diafygi »

> 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, yet still keep the lights on. That means you have to build in a ton of storage and load control, which means good communication and analysis, which means software! Something like half of the impact of the energy transition will be done through software optimizing the deployment and operation of clean energy assets.

Anyway, please check out my previous comments on recommendations when looking for climate impact work. Overall, the biggest impact per unit time spent is working as a regulator[1]. Next is working at a cleantech company[2].

[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/energy/comments/8l5yhw/whats_the_be...

[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15127154

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

#30

Post by y3k »

throwaway9382 wrote: post #28

If you're a typical tech employee/well-to-do person - travel less. Air travel is likely the single largest component of your carbon footprint, and with high quality communication tools and good management, travel for work is not as important. (Plus I think if folks introspected they'd admit fun is a significant motivation for their work trips.)

I already do that, I travel only once every 2 years or so. I'd be able to do it way more frequently, but preffer not to.
Post reply on HN