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

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

#61

Post by bobxyz »

Stop worrying about nothing. All the noise around ecology is only used to legitimize new taxes.

Even the concept of vegetarianism is a sham. If everyone starts consuming vegetable food, yields will have to be ensured by standardizing crops and using pesticides.

Pollution does not come from everyone, but from the big industrial groups.

You will never have ecology by advocating a society based on economic growth.

It is a rude and dishonest lure.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

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

#62

Post by bobxyz »

In the future, you will have other problems to deal with than pollution: financial crisis, growing inequalities, migratory waves, international tensions... Your children will either be unemployed or soldiers for Israel;), that will be their future.

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

#63

Post by posix_me_less »

wilsonnb3 wrote: post #49

The only thing that you can do that will matter is convincing other people to do something. A collective problem requires collective action. Anything you do alone will not make a difference.

Sometimes the best convincing is done by giving people a good personal example, not merely by talking.

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

#65

Post by sorrymate »

bobxyz wrote: post #62

In the future, you will have other problems to deal with than pollution: financial crisis, growing inequalities, migratory waves, international tensions... Your children will either be unemployed or soldiers for Israel;), that will be their future.

Above is a white nationalist. You are not welcome. Your irrational beliefs are not welcome. Take your hatred somewhere else. Immigrants and Jewish heritage is not a problem.

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

#66

Post by collyw »

bigato wrote: post #59

Going vegan is the single biggest way to reduce your impact on the environment: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding... The next step would probably be engaging other people in veganism and in spreading the word about it.

Not having children will have a bigger impact.

A plant based diet is moderately low down this list (again from the Guardian, they could try to be a bit more consistent).

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/12/want-to-...

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

#68

Post by kruczek »

jlangenauer wrote: post #54

Although it has become fashionable to decry making personal changes as "irrelevant" and "ineffective" with the lie that since everyone isn't doing it, there's not point in anyone doing it, making changes to how you and your family live is still very important. Things you can do: 1. Find an energy provider who sells green energy - here in Germany, it's possible (and common) to buy 100% green energy, but I don't know w…

> it has become fashionable to decry making personal changes as "irrelevant" and "ineffective" with the lie that since everyone isn't doing it, there's not point in anyone doing it

I think it's very short-sighted for people to say that. While there may be no direct effects of certain personal changes, there are still indirect results.

Such change may make me more self-conscious about our environment. If I made a hundred irrelevant small changes, then perhaps it'll be more likely for me to even realize the need for a big change, when it comes.

Same way, other people who see my small changes might be more likely to even start thinking about our environmental impact.

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

#69

Post by mbrock »

krageon wrote: post #51
wilsonnb3 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could buy a thousand new phones every year and it wouldn’t make a noticeable difference. Climate change is a problem with such a massive scale that any individual action taken to combat it isn’t going to matter.

If everyone did it, it'd make a noticeable impact. That impact isn't enough to fix things, but thinking "oh well I won't do anything because they're not doing anything" is not the kind of thinking that will get us to a solution. Act to your capacity and trust that everyone else will do the same. Either you will be right and things improve quite a bit, or you will be wrong and things improve very little. In both cases…

Coming up with a convincing argument for individuals to adopt locally subsignificant choices—a new, credible golden rule—might be something for an entrepreneuring philosopher.

It’s the same problem as getting people to vote...

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

#70

Post by mbrock »

piocho wrote: post #39
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...)

Agree ! If only more people could thing like you.

Secure proof-of-stake is a huge topic in blockchain research! It won’t have the same characteristics as PoW—worse in some ways, better in others—but it’s not like nobody’s thinking about it.
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