[dead]
Show HN: Find the most climate friendly meeting location
71–80 of 85 posts
Re: Show HN: Find the most climate friendly meeting location
#72There seems to be an underlying assumption that direct flights will be available to the meeting city from all the locations. This is not particularly realistic for long distance meetings, and for shorter distances, why not use rail?
In my case, I used Shanghai, San Francisco, and Zurich. The suggested location was Fairbanks, AK, which for the Zurich & Shanghai based team members would mean a 24 hour, two stop flight. I think we'll pass.
Adding London to the equation shifts the meeting point to… Tromsø, Norway, which demonstrates the absurdity of the geographical micro-optimization perfectly. Picking Stockholm or Oslo in the same neighborhood would have saved literally every participant a stop on their itinerary.
Re: Show HN: Find the most climate friendly meeting location
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the ideal case. However, I have been involved in quite a bit of European projects and it is not that easy. Last meeting was in Poznan and I could have used the train via Berlin from south Germany, but somehow I have not been able to book any night trains lately and traveling over the day would have taken a whole day of my work week instead of half. Next trip is the other direction to The Hague. I will take th…
I don't travel for work by train but for fun, so my experience is probably different to yours. Some EU countries (Greece, Poland, Portugal) still have terrible, slow trains. Paris-Berlin takes 8h (fastest one) for about 877 km. Berlin-Gdansk takes 8h for about 400 km (!!). I last traveled by night train about 20 years ago throughout Germany and Poland. It was terrible experience. But great if I was looking for a comp…
Considering the size of the cities and how close they are, I'm surprised train transportation is so slow. Paris has 11 million people (comparable to Los Angeles). Berlin has 6 million people (comparable to Philadelphia). As the crow flies, they are 545 miles apart. By road the distance is 650 miles. Assuming you average 60mph, that's 11 hours by car. And when you get to your destination you have a car, so you can easily travel outside the main city. Using a car also means you don't have to worry about transportation to/from the train stations, nor do you have to do anything special to transport bulky items such as bicycles.
Some of my friends have greatly praised European trains, so I thought they'd be far more compelling.
Re: Show HN: Find the most climate friendly meeting location
#74Isn't it better to meet in a place where one of the people is already located? Then one less person has to fly, and they can use their saved time to work and offset the CO2 spent by the additional time traveled by the others.
Agreed. If > 50% of the attendees are already in a central-ish location, that changes the calculation by quite a lot.
Fun and well-designed tool, though.
Re: Show HN: Find the most climate friendly meeting location
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't travel for work by train but for fun, so my experience is probably different to yours. Some EU countries (Greece, Poland, Portugal) still have terrible, slow trains. Paris-Berlin takes 8h (fastest one) for about 877 km. Berlin-Gdansk takes 8h for about 400 km (!!). I last traveled by night train about 20 years ago throughout Germany and Poland. It was terrible experience. But great if I was looking for a comp…
Considering the size of the cities and how close they are, I'm surprised train transportation is so slow. Paris has 11 million people (comparable to Los Angeles). Berlin has 6 million people (comparable to Philadelphia). As the crow flies, they are 545 miles apart. By road the distance is 650 miles. Assuming you average 60mph, that's 11 hours by car. And when you get to your destination you have a car, so you can eas…
Europe's train network is often excellent within a country, but lacking when it comes to crossing country borders. That's starting to be addressed now, but it will take some time for the effects to be seen.
Re: Show HN: Find the most climate friendly meeting location
#76> Open this site on a desktop to view the app.
You know, smartphones are capable of displaying websites in desktop mode. Why do you block mobile users' experience like this? I don't have my laptop with me, and won't until Monday. Not being able to take a look at your app in the meantime means I probably never will.
Re: Show HN: Find the most climate friendly meeting location
#77[deleted]
Re: Show HN: Find the most climate friendly meeting location
#78There seems to be an underlying assumption that direct flights will be available to the meeting city from all the locations. This is not particularly realistic for long distance meetings, and for shorter distances, why not use rail? In my case, I used Shanghai, San Francisco, and Zurich. The suggested location was Fairbanks, AK, which for the Zurich & Shanghai based team members would mean a 24 hour, two stop flight.…
Hmm, considering the transit locations of flights, and how much CO2 it costs to get from the different points, would make it a weighted-graph-traversing exercise...
Would be a fun CS101, or CS201 assignment...
Re: Show HN: Find the most climate friendly meeting location
#79The correct answer is on the internet: Using Zoom, Discord, Skype, Teams, Facetime, or whatever your favored medium of internet video communications is.
In this day and age, particularly in the wake of covid lockdowns, meetings in the flesh are a waste of time and money, let alone the resources; and I say that as someone who doesn't subscribe to environmentalism. You need to talk to someone? Radio and telephones solved that a century ago. You need to see someone face to face? Video conferencing solved that a decade or two ago.
The only exception is if you must physically exchange something with the other person(s). Otherwise, whatever excuse you have to meet up with someone is vapid; save the time, money, and resources and just fire up Zoom.
Re: Show HN: Find the most climate friendly meeting location
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better for one to travel. A disproportionate amount of a flight’s fuel is in takeoff and climb. Meeting in Houston is far worse because you’ve doubled the required takeoff rolls.
Unless it's accounting for no direct flights between Caracas and San Francisco, which would mean either the Caracas person needs to fly to SF connecting in Houston, or both go to Houston in a direct flight, meet there and go back. It's the same 4 takeoffs. (Disclaimer, I have no idea if there are direct flights from Caracas to SF, but from Brazil I always need to stop by in a hub)
Even with a layover, it’s better for one to do it because it’s one less hotel room, airport transport, etc.