61–70 of 77 posts
The easiest way to reduce CO2 is to plant a forest, so look for companies that do this.
I'm not sure if that's just an asterisk indicating that the short-run effect may be a wash, or if it's clear enough to rule out some environments/tree species in favor of other choices.
Look for agtech or renewable energy companies who need software engineers. You're helping tackle climate change by being a part of the solution.
The most effective way to reduce the effects of global warming is to implement a carbon tax. Use the power of the economic system we have to guide firms reduce their own carbon footprint. For example, in Canada, they implemented a revenue-neutral policy where carbon is taxed and the money made is refunded evenly per person. The only costs are the minimum administrative and the substitution/income effect (Slutsky equation).
As a person, it's difficult to know where to help. I would recommend to first promote the above and then look at the metric '$ per CO2 emission saved'. I believe it is the most important metric to reducing your carbon footprint.
Taking the bus instead of driving, moving to a smaller house, reducing meat consumption or updating to LED lighting in many cases has a negative $/CO2, meaning you save money and reduce CO2. With the money you saved, look at projects with positive but small $/CO2, this could be purchasing power from renewable sources, purchasing a more efficient heating and cooling system. This list is what I've seen in north america but changes greatly depending on region and what you are already doing.
Unfortunately it is a very complex challenge. I know I didn't answer your question. I would recommend starting with good information, the IPCC releases reports of the leading science of climate change and would recommend starting with the report for policy makers as a summary. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/
We started http://climateaction.tech/ to amplify and connect tech workers with just these types of questions, check out our guides there and join the Slack to connect with other folks wrestling with the same questions.
A parent - and raise your child(ren) to live in an ecologically sensitive manner that you wish the rest of the world to be. (Am being honest, not being snarky)
Surely not being a parent is friendlier to the environment :-)
All politics is local. Imho the most promising stuff from tech startups is the e-scooter rental stuff. City councils are naturally conservative about big transit-oriented projects, but e-scooter rentals and public transit could work together to be a great system for making dents in climate change.
There are also a number of environment and social impact accelerators that may be useful for finding companies or pursuing one's own ideas, we started though the EU Climate-KIC program, for example. Increasingly as well there are a number of larger corporates engaging with social impact as a driver (sometimes this can appear a little like green-washing but there are some genuine motivations behind it).
At the moment it does seem more of a growing industry, the people and the companies are there if you can keep that determination to find them. And the more developers showing and looking for a clear sense of that environmental motivation will itself push through a wider change as there is plenty of great and fulfilling work that can be done.
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I would love to be kept up to date with something like this.
if you care to, send me an email (address in profile), and i'll follow-up (just the once) in about a month with where i think it's going.
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I was thinking about this yesterday and came up with this question: How many trees would I have to plant, and how long would they have to live to offset my (average Western European) lifetime CO2 contribution?
and if you fly somewhere to plant it you just added a bunch more