I'm very passionate to fight the climate catastrophe. Unfortunately my current e-commerce job has nothing to do with it. The best I can do outside my personal behavior is to donate money to some organizations. Are there any IT jobs at companies that are more aligned with my passion? Any idea on how to find them? Most of the companies I found don't seem to need Software Engineers / SysAdmins. I'm living in Germany and would happily do full-remote work.
Ask HN: IT jobs fighting against climate catastrophe?
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Re: Ask HN: IT jobs fighting against climate catastrophe?
#2Most software engineers I've met in the climate science field are either scientific programmers or data scientists. If this is the type of job you like to do I think there are regular position openings in scientific institutions. My knowledge outside academia is limited
Re: Ask HN: IT jobs fighting against climate catastrophe?
#3This question pops up quite regularly on HN. I am always giving the same answer. We, HN crowd, presented with a problem tend to reach for a technical solution. Unfortunately, climate change is not an engineering problem, it's a political problem. IT will not solve it. The best we, as engineers, can do is the same as for anyone else - step out of our comport zone and join a climate movement. Extinction Rebellion is my favorite. You can choose your own poison.
Re: Ask HN: IT jobs fighting against climate catastrophe?
#4"that's not my job" x 1B
Re: Ask HN: IT jobs fighting against climate catastrophe?
#5This question pops up quite regularly on HN. I am always giving the same answer. We, HN crowd, presented with a problem tend to reach for a technical solution. Unfortunately, climate change is not an engineering problem, it's a political problem. IT will not solve it. The best we, as engineers, can do is the same as for anyone else - step out of our comport zone and join a climate movement. Extinction Rebellion is my…
> is not an engineering problem, it's a political problem
That's a political choice, and it doesn't have to be that way. You think it's a hard political problem because we'd have to make very hard choices (reducing quality of life) with the currently deployed technical solutions.
We could push along the R&D levels tech that's already researched, just not deployed (renewables and storage for their intermittent production like li-ion utility scale batteries), and research more some stuff that's barely researched (next gen nuclear, fusion).
Having palatable tech solutions would mean not making unpalatable political choices.
Re: Ask HN: IT jobs fighting against climate catastrophe?
#6This question pops up quite regularly on HN. I am always giving the same answer. We, HN crowd, presented with a problem tend to reach for a technical solution. Unfortunately, climate change is not an engineering problem, it's a political problem. IT will not solve it. The best we, as engineers, can do is the same as for anyone else - step out of our comport zone and join a climate movement. Extinction Rebellion is my…
Climate change requires also a few technical problems to be solved. Jobs in the IT area are usually included in the chain.
Though, I also think joining a climate movement is very important.
Re: Ask HN: IT jobs fighting against climate catastrophe?
#7You have to ask yourself, why did Bill Gates short Tesla?
Re: Ask HN: IT jobs fighting against climate catastrophe?
#8This question pops up quite regularly on HN. I am always giving the same answer. We, HN crowd, presented with a problem tend to reach for a technical solution. Unfortunately, climate change is not an engineering problem, it's a political problem. IT will not solve it. The best we, as engineers, can do is the same as for anyone else - step out of our comport zone and join a climate movement. Extinction Rebellion is my…
I think that you're leaving out economic factors - when better and cleaner technology becomes cheaper than the alternatives, politics becomes largely irrelevant. And to get to that point economically, you need technological innovation.
Re: Ask HN: IT jobs fighting against climate catastrophe?
#9This question pops up quite regularly on HN. I am always giving the same answer. We, HN crowd, presented with a problem tend to reach for a technical solution. Unfortunately, climate change is not an engineering problem, it's a political problem. IT will not solve it. The best we, as engineers, can do is the same as for anyone else - step out of our comport zone and join a climate movement. Extinction Rebellion is my…
I think that you're leaving out economic factors - when better and cleaner technology becomes cheaper than the alternatives, politics becomes largely irrelevant. And to get to that point economically, you need technological innovation.
That's a lot harder to do when fossil fuels benefit from massive subsidies.
Re: Ask HN: IT jobs fighting against climate catastrophe?
#10This question pops up quite regularly on HN. I am always giving the same answer. We, HN crowd, presented with a problem tend to reach for a technical solution. Unfortunately, climate change is not an engineering problem, it's a political problem. IT will not solve it. The best we, as engineers, can do is the same as for anyone else - step out of our comport zone and join a climate movement. Extinction Rebellion is my…
I think that you're leaving out economic factors - when better and cleaner technology becomes cheaper than the alternatives, politics becomes largely irrelevant. And to get to that point economically, you need technological innovation.
Not gonna happen.
This is a popular idea, I think people are a bit deluded by the fact that Wind+Solar got so cheap. Don't get me wrong: This is great. We'll likely be able to get rid of fossil-based electricity simply due to costs (even though it's too slow).
But it's simply not plausible that you will find a cheaper technology in every area.
Finding a way to fly a plane without carbon emissions is a challenge to begin with. Doing it cheaper than with kerosene - there isn't even a faint of an idea how to do that.
In some areas like cement the only option seems to be carbon capture and storage. There's no way whatsoever that a cement plant + a ccs plant is cheaper than a cement plant alone.