Ask HN: How can I, a programmer, help with the fight against climate change?

Check out Sustainable Web Design by Ed Greenwood. Tonnes of amazing suggestions

Don't read HN on this topic. Read what actual climate experts have to say. Look at their academic and public-facing statements on the subject. Climatologists, climate economists, energy and agriculture experts.

Start with reading. For example http://www.withouthotair.com/

This is something I've thought a lot about, as I got two degrees in environmental studies, but ended up becoming a programmer because it pays more and is fun. I promised myself I'd never 'sell out' and would at least work on something loosely related to climate. So far so good.

So as far as programming jobs, the most interesting would be working for a company that is explicitly focused on climate:

- Carbon markets are growing fast. Here I'll plug the company I co-founded, [Offsetra.com](http://offsetra.com/). It's a competitive space, and a unique one, but I 100% believe in it and I know it will play a significant role in global emissions reductions. Lots of room for web and app development.

- Carbon accounting is also growing. A fantastic space where software and automation can solve problems and lower costs. I helped build a very simple tool, carbon.fyi, which led to a truly astonishing amount of attention, media & impact. I'd like to keep building more tools in this space.

- Hard core engineering. New energy tech, battery tech, materials, or efficiency improvements. Surely room for software, but requires specialization.

- Fun moon-shot startups like the ones you see here from YC. Most tend to be focused on Direct Air Capture. I'm not so excited about that, but some people are.

Not strictly climate-focused, but still super relevant:

- The broad ESG, consulting and green-investment space (includes carbon accounting, but also non-financial reporting, investing, venture capital etc.). Basically 'helping companies go green'. Billions of dollars in this industry, plenty of room to improve process and automate.

- GIS. This is where I ended up for my day job. Geographic Information Systems. Building or using the software that governments, consultants, and researchers use to understand the planet. From hardcore lowlevel programming, to machine learning, web-dev, design and more. Huge and important industry. Caveat: the fossil fuel industry also loves GIS.

- Transit, mobility, urbanism. Love this field. I worked for a wonderful mobility startup and interviewed with many others. Even Google is involved in this space, of course through Google Maps, but also Sidewalk Labs.

Other things I can think of... climate modeling and academic research, social organization/activism and politics.... NGOs definitely hire developers, especially web and frontend. I've interviewed with Vizzuality, Environmental Defense Fund, and some others I forget.

DM me, I'd love to connect.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/winter-is-coming-tem... this article suggests that natural gas prices may increase

First, please reconsider whether there is really a problem. I don't mean to recheck the fearmongering articles, I mean to think fundamentally about 1) the real history of earth with respect to CO2 and the climate and 2) what can actually be known about cause and effect in complex systems.

Is the climate changing? Of course, trivially true. It would be far more remarkable to find any physical system that wasn't changing.

Is the climate changing in any unprecedented way? I don't think so. For context, look at the graph on http://scotese.com/climate.htm All but the last few pixels are, of course, before the possibility of human influence, and we clearly see the temperature varying between 10 and 25C. We've been in what Scotese calls the "ice box" for all of human history. What would you expect to happen? I'd expect it to warm up. What else would it do?

That's temperature. What about CO2? Humans are thought to have added about 100 ppm over about a century, from around 300 to around 400. Not that long ago, though, CO2 ppm was twice what it is now. Not that long ago, it was 10x what it is now. The earth at that time was a jungle teeming with life.

We're often told that CO2 level are dangerously high, when in fact CO2 is almost as low as it's ever been in all of earth's history. Have you ever heard of a dangerous low CO2 ppm? It's about 150, at which apparently plant respiration fails. It seems we have been much much closer to cataclysm from low CO2 than from high.