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Climatescape.org – Mapping the global landscape of climate-saving organizations

climatescape.org

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Re: Climatescape.org – Mapping the global landscape of climate-saving organizations

#21

Post by bloudermilk »

blueski wrote: post #19

Thanks for putting this together! I've wondered before if Kittyhawk and other flying car companies count as climate-saving organizations. Flying small personal aircraft will always use vastly more energy per mile than vehicles that can roll along the ground - and even if there are no emissions in flight, the energy cost and likely emissions of making the batteries and equipment will be non-negligible.

My personal opinion is that we're not going to convince people to stop flying, so we should decarbonize air travel regardless of its relative efficiency.

Re: Climatescape.org – Mapping the global landscape of climate-saving organizations

#22

Post by bloudermilk »

diafygi wrote: post #14

I feel like political/advocacy/regulatory should be a category. Organizations like Vote Solar, SEIA, Mission:Data, Sierra Club, etc. have most impact fighting climate change because the policies they push through have huge industry-wide consequences. Also, for energy, how wide do you want to cast the net? Solar and wind generation is now more cost effective than fossil generation, so traditional utilities and utility…

Thank you for all the thoughtful feedback.

You bring up some great points regarding categorization–choosing a sensible taxonomy has been by far the hardest part of this project so far. I'd love some help in this area if you or anyone else is interested.

> Should GE be on the list?

I've been asking myself this same question for weeks and haven't come to a conclusion yet. What do you think? How about O&G companies with big green tech budgets?

> Also, what about governments? ... Shouldn't they be included on the list?

I think this would be a very interesting data point to track indeed, though I suspect someone else is already tracking this.

> Finally, a search or full list to Ctrl+F

Agreed, added this to our backlog.

Re: Climatescape.org – Mapping the global landscape of climate-saving organizations

#23

Post by blueski »

bloudermilk wrote: post #21
blueski wrote: post #19

Thanks for putting this together! I've wondered before if Kittyhawk and other flying car companies count as climate-saving organizations. Flying small personal aircraft will always use vastly more energy per mile than vehicles that can roll along the ground - and even if there are no emissions in flight, the energy cost and likely emissions of making the batteries and equipment will be non-negligible.

My personal opinion is that we're not going to convince people to stop flying, so we should decarbonize air travel regardless of its relative efficiency.

But my understanding is that Kittyhawk etc are (at least in part) creating a new market of single-person "quick hops" within cities or metropolitan areas, displacing ground transport. Not only would this increase energy use per mile for existing trips, it could lead to a lot of new ones (e.g. making it viable to commute from far flung locations). This ramp in energy use for personal convenience seems problematic.

Re: Climatescape.org – Mapping the global landscape of climate-saving organizations

#24

Post by Angostura »

bloudermilk wrote: post #21
blueski wrote: post #19

Thanks for putting this together! I've wondered before if Kittyhawk and other flying car companies count as climate-saving organizations. Flying small personal aircraft will always use vastly more energy per mile than vehicles that can roll along the ground - and even if there are no emissions in flight, the energy cost and likely emissions of making the batteries and equipment will be non-negligible.

My personal opinion is that we're not going to convince people to stop flying, so we should decarbonize air travel regardless of its relative efficiency.

We don't have to convice everyone to stop flying. We can start with to convincing everyone to fly less. Decarbonise in the meantime, if you can, of course.

Re: Climatescape.org – Mapping the global landscape of climate-saving organizations

#25

Post by sails »

bloudermilk wrote: post #9

Hi all, creator here–so cool to see this on HN. I made Climatescape after seeing dozens of people go through a similar process of cataloging interesting climate-focused companies in spreadsheets, notes, and elsewhere. The goal is to unify these efforts and provide the content free to anyone who might find it useful. The website is open source[1] and content is Creative Commons licensed. This is really just the beginn…

Edit: I see it has been shared

You should share this on the climateaction.tech [0] group, lots if very interesting conversations happening and likely a good source of companies too!

[0] https://climateaction.tech/

Re: Climatescape.org – Mapping the global landscape of climate-saving organizations

#26

Post by sails »

bloudermilk wrote: post #22
diafygi wrote: post #14

I feel like political/advocacy/regulatory should be a category. Organizations like Vote Solar, SEIA, Mission:Data, Sierra Club, etc. have most impact fighting climate change because the policies they push through have huge industry-wide consequences. Also, for energy, how wide do you want to cast the net? Solar and wind generation is now more cost effective than fossil generation, so traditional utilities and utility…

Thank you for all the thoughtful feedback. You bring up some great points regarding categorization–choosing a sensible taxonomy has been by far the hardest part of this project so far. I'd love some help in this area if you or anyone else is interested. > Should GE be on the list? I've been asking myself this same question for weeks and haven't come to a conclusion yet. What do you think? How about O&G companies with…

> How about O&G companies with big green tech budgets

This troubles me endlessly. My gut says no, as I can't imagine some of the largest companies in the world reorienting sufficiently, and I feel that they should quickly become sidelined as relics of a different time. But it seems unreasonable to think they don't have some value to add with the large budgets and pressure they are under.

Gladly be informed on this topic!

Re: Climatescape.org – Mapping the global landscape of climate-saving organizations

#27

Post by ebiester »

sails wrote: post #26
bloudermilk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for all the thoughtful feedback. You bring up some great points regarding categorization–choosing a sensible taxonomy has been by far the hardest part of this project so far. I'd love some help in this area if you or anyone else is interested. > Should GE be on the list? I've been asking myself this same question for weeks and haven't come to a conclusion yet. What do you think? How about O&G companies with…

> How about O&G companies with big green tech budgets This troubles me endlessly. My gut says no, as I can't imagine some of the largest companies in the world reorienting sufficiently, and I feel that they should quickly become sidelined as relics of a different time. But it seems unreasonable to think they don't have some value to add with the large budgets and pressure they are under. Gladly be informed on this to…

I argue that it does, as someone doing a search for competitors or alternatives might be caught unaware if this is a blind spot for them. For example, you have Drivy (bought by GetAround... a while back?) and yet you're missing a large portion of the CarShare landscape. Do you count Zipcar? (Avis-Budget group, but the largest player and running EVs in London). Maven? (GM) DriveNow/car2go? (BMW, and EV-centric in Europe) And that doesn't even get into smaller players like Innova (EV-focused) or BlueLA (LA-only but EV)/BlueIndy/etc - or Autolib/Cite Lib/Carma...

* Full disclosure: I'm employed by Zipcar. But I'm also an alternative transit geek in general.

Re: Climatescape.org – Mapping the global landscape of climate-saving organizations

#28

Post by tensor »

Angostura wrote: post #24
bloudermilk wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal opinion is that we're not going to convince people to stop flying, so we should decarbonize air travel regardless of its relative efficiency.

We don't have to convice everyone to stop flying. We can start with to convincing everyone to fly less . Decarbonise in the meantime, if you can, of course.

I don't think this is a very practical approach. People both need and want to fly places. We need to accept that and find ways to make flight greener.
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