Write fast, efficient low level code and don't put developer experience above users. The carbon cost of modern bloat is immense.
Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?
31–40 of 105 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?
#32Have you considered Tesla?
Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?
#33Here's an earlier HN post on carbon removal technologies, some of which seem quite cost effective and promising: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18285606 Perhaps you can volunteer your time or other resources towards some of these initiatives.
Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?
#34Host 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.
Doesn't Google do something similar? I don't know the exact figures, but I know they made a push for renewables a little while back.
100% renewable: https://cloud.google.com/environment/
Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?
#35One example I can imagine you can help with: if your city doesn't have it, you could put its train timetables in an app. There's one for Sydney, it's called TripView. A train timetable available in a convenient manner will help people rely on trains more and reduce CO2 emissions.
Google maps does a reasonable job of finding a public transport route. Should work anywhere right?
Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?
#36Don't code in Python and the like, they are very bad for energy comsumption. Google it so you will find out what i mean.
Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?
#37Here is a link to another thread on HM regarding the same problem : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18276987
I definitely think that we can't do anything as developers (maybe optimizing process to consume less, but that's not obvious). And here is why :
- we used computers/servers/hard disks/etc that are made of rare-earth metals (which required a lot of energy to be extracted and are a environmental disaster (first link in google : https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/aug/07/china-ra...). - big datacenters, in which our compagnies are involved into, require a fabulous amount of energy to work (cooling système, electricity, etc), proably more that average cities.
However, what you (and we) could do as citizen could be : - buy from local/bio producers - do not buy shitty products coming directly from china that will last 1 week and then will be broken for no reason. - think twice before buying new product (not only electronic ones). do I need this new smartphone (which, by the way, his cost is half a salary or a all salary for most of the people ?) can I repear it ? - do not buy big companies' products (coke,nutella,etc). They are destroying environement (mexican vilages have less and less water because of coca-cola, nutala are heavily using palm oil...) Those are only 2 examples.
Easy to write, not to do ...
> Sadly I'm just a Software Engineer and I feel that I cannot help as, for example, a Genetic Engineer to make those ideas become true. I'm not a genius, nor a millionaire philanthropist, neither a clever startup founder.
Most of us are in the same case. I'm actually reading Gunter Pauli's books regarding the "Blue Economy". -> https://www.theblueeconomy.org/ There are plenty of "simple" ideas that might be "easy" to implements in our life as side-projects.
Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?
#38What country do you live in? I work at a climate research institute and have connections all over. I could perhaps put you in contact with a local research team.
Sadly, I'd say that a lot of current research tools are pretty shoddy when it comes to implementation. Not that they give incorrect results, more-so that there is no way to really interop systems with any ease. No standards, only a small culture of open source etc etc. Having a software engineer on speed dial to consult with when designing and implementing new frontier research tools would be of immense help in my opinion.
Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?
#39devise 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...)
Agree ! If only more people could thing like you.
Re: Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?
#40Reduce 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%.
We love meat too. What I do is trying to not go to McDonalds or fast food so often where meat are mostly sh*t, but rather go to a local farmer and buy fresh meat. Maybe twice a week.