Just join a company that is doing good for the environment or society - they are both connected so it’s pretty broad. Think in systems, it’s how biology works and the amazing complexities of life. There’s a lot of you out there, looking for “purpose” in life. That’s rad because I find that keeps life interesting. Helping others really puts me in my happy place. Been hard for me to think of other things to do with my time.
Ask HN: How can I, a programmer, help with the fight against climate change?
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Re: Ask HN: How can I, a programmer, help with the fight against climate change?
#12Get involved politically. This is the only way to change anything, but it’s extremely unlikely you’ll have any effect. Next, as an individual who’s likely richer than average (as a programmer on HN) and has the ability to do these things: 1. Don’t have biological children. 2. Don’t eat meat. 3. Don’t drive a car. 4. Don’t fly in planes. 5. Don’t buy things you don’t really need. 6. Live in small/dense housing.
The human body is 12% carbon, so every child locks up some carbon. Having children also increase the chances of raising more adults who might solve the big problems.
And don’t waste electricity virtue signaling online.
Re: Ask HN: How can I, a programmer, help with the fight against climate change?
#13Get involved politically. This is the only way to change anything, but it’s extremely unlikely you’ll have any effect. Next, as an individual who’s likely richer than average (as a programmer on HN) and has the ability to do these things: 1. Don’t have biological children. 2. Don’t eat meat. 3. Don’t drive a car. 4. Don’t fly in planes. 5. Don’t buy things you don’t really need. 6. Live in small/dense housing.
> don't have children.
I don't think this is good advice. Sure humans create more GHGs than non existent humans but nothing will make you more future oriented than having kids (assuming you want them of course) also the kinds of people that help solve climate change are likely to come from the kinds of people who frequent hacker news. If you look at who is most successful in tech, it's often people who come from upper middle class backgrounds, at least in my experience. There are a few outliers of course but they're the exception. Most people don't have the luxury of thinking about climate change
Re: Ask HN: How can I, a programmer, help with the fight against climate change?
#14Firstly, audit your emissions and make some changes for the easy wins. You can make large savings without committing to 0 children, 0 meat, 0 petrol cars.
Next, act horizontally: help other reduce their emissions.
Repeat. Stay ahead of the curve to avoid hypocrisy.
As a technologist, you have lots of options to help horizontally.
Technology will play a role in mitigating climate change, and it's not ready yet.
* Profile your machines for energy usage. Try to maximise power saved. File bugs and write patches. As an example, GNOME does not support suspend-then-hibernate, and nor does secure boot.
* Build an open database of vampire devices. How can consumers decide which devices to avoid? Are there cheap workarounds?
* Help make the transition to clean sources by improving software for controlling and graphing inverters.
* Build tools to allow people to measure and reduce their consumption.
* Build a HTML5 version of https://www.withouthotair.com/ . Put it on GitHub and allow people to contribute country-specific figures.
* Work on cycling routing apps.
* Build a site to crowdsource requests for electric vehicle charging stations.
* Tell others about what you do.
Err towards action over picking the perfect project.
If you don't have the capacity sustain a project, contribute to an existing one instead.
Take energy saving technology that is usable by 0.5% of users, and make it usable by 5% of users.
Build these tools into your life routines, so you use them as a user.
Re: Ask HN: How can I, a programmer, help with the fight against climate change?
#15Get involved politically. This is the only way to change anything, but it’s extremely unlikely you’ll have any effect. Next, as an individual who’s likely richer than average (as a programmer on HN) and has the ability to do these things: 1. Don’t have biological children. 2. Don’t eat meat. 3. Don’t drive a car. 4. Don’t fly in planes. 5. Don’t buy things you don’t really need. 6. Live in small/dense housing.
> don't have children. I don't think this is good advice. Sure humans create more GHGs than non existent humans but nothing will make you more future oriented than having kids (assuming you want them of course) also the kinds of people that help solve climate change are likely to come from the kinds of people who frequent hacker news. If you look at who is most successful in tech, it's often people who come from uppe…
Adopt a kid instead (updated my original post a bit) if you absolutely must.
But trust me, there are plenty of rich HN readers who are going to ignore me. There’s going to be plenty of new rich kids out there to found the next Facebook and then wonder how they can help with climate change before they have a couple more kids.
Re: Ask HN: How can I, a programmer, help with the fight against climate change?
#16Get involved politically. This is the only way to change anything, but it’s extremely unlikely you’ll have any effect. Next, as an individual who’s likely richer than average (as a programmer on HN) and has the ability to do these things: 1. Don’t have biological children. 2. Don’t eat meat. 3. Don’t drive a car. 4. Don’t fly in planes. 5. Don’t buy things you don’t really need. 6. Live in small/dense housing.
The human body is 12% carbon, so every child locks up some carbon. Having children also increase the chances of raising more adults who might solve the big problems. And don’t waste electricity virtue signaling online.
I’m not virtue signaling.
Other than the political action thing (honestly think it’s pointless) and the fact that I buy too much crap online, that’s how I live my life.
I just don’t see a way where humans “beat” climate change without an incredible (and incredibly unlikely) shift in how we live our lives.
Re: Ask HN: How can I, a programmer, help with the fight against climate change?
#17Only governments can stop climate change. Individuals can't and for-profit businesses won't. The most impactful thing you can do is help political organizers pressure politicians to make better decisions. Unfortunately, it's very hard to do this part-time as a volunteer. Very few orgs will accept free help from part-timers. You could try to get a software job with a pro-environment lobby or with a legal group like En…
This comment is refuted by the dozens of clean energy and clean XXX companies currently doing great work and hiring.
A huge amount of carbon is emitted by sources that can't be profitably replaced in the near future: coal (especially in China), concrete, and cars come to mind.
The only entities that can accelerate the switch is the government. Those sources of carbon are still too cheap in most places for consumers or businesses to want to stop using them entirely.
I'll also point out that OP asked what a software dev can do, not what a physicist or engineer can do.
Re: Ask HN: How can I, a programmer, help with the fight against climate change?
#18Get involved politically. This is the only way to change anything, but it’s extremely unlikely you’ll have any effect. Next, as an individual who’s likely richer than average (as a programmer on HN) and has the ability to do these things: 1. Don’t have biological children. 2. Don’t eat meat. 3. Don’t drive a car. 4. Don’t fly in planes. 5. Don’t buy things you don’t really need. 6. Live in small/dense housing.
If this is the only answer to climate change, we are fucked. Except for #5 I would be miserable if I had to live like this, and I expect most people in developed countries would be as well.
Re: Ask HN: How can I, a programmer, help with the fight against climate change?
#19Get involved politically. This is the only way to change anything, but it’s extremely unlikely you’ll have any effect. Next, as an individual who’s likely richer than average (as a programmer on HN) and has the ability to do these things: 1. Don’t have biological children. 2. Don’t eat meat. 3. Don’t drive a car. 4. Don’t fly in planes. 5. Don’t buy things you don’t really need. 6. Live in small/dense housing.
If this is the only answer to climate change, we are fucked. Except for #5 I would be miserable if I had to live like this, and I expect most people in developed countries would be as well.
Either we change how we live or we’re fucked.
And from what I’ve seen, people don’t mind being fucked tomorrow as long as they’re OK today. Even better if they can be OK-ish tomorrow as long as somebody else gets fucked worse.
Do you really truly believe that there’s going to be a magic climate change solution that allows the developed world to continue living the way it has?
Re: Ask HN: How can I, a programmer, help with the fight against climate change?
#20Why not join a climate focused tech company? There are a bunch out there.