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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/
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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?
> “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?” Yes, it’s called nuclear power
Well, unless you’re talking about fusion, which, at this point, truly is a “magical” solution.
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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 w…
Natural gas is rapidly obsoleting coal on price, thanks to American frackers. Pollution absolutely can be replaced profitably, and without plunging billions back into poverty
I don’t think people know how to count carbon footprint the same way we know how to count calories. We’d need a database for every food, social activity, economic activity, etc. Buying this device = 100 calories (you get the idea). Then once we can measure that, we all have to go on a serious diet. AR can’t come fast enough, as I’d really love just see this data by looking at something.
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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?
> “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?” Yes, it’s called nuclear power
Not going to happen. We need solutions rolled out at global scale by 2030. Nuclear power projects don't have a good track record for speed.
We need solutions that no-one is going to object to and for which the whole supply chain is already huge. Nuclear's cooling water demand alone makes it vulnerable to protest.
I'm hoping that Form's iron-air grid-scale battery is manufacturable, scalable and economical. Shouldn't be too hard to commit a few percent of the world's iron refining capacity to making grid-scale batteries to complement solar and wind power.
If not Form's, then one or more of their competitors' batteries. I sure hope someone cracks it. Last resort, we could use Lithium chemistries, but that wouldn't be so environmentally benign and would take a bit longer to scale out.
-- Use more efficient tools or technical stacks where possible. I was able to bring down CI runtime from about 12 minutes to about 3 minutes, with some not-very-difficult changes in the codebase. Considering CI is run tens of times everyday, and the codebase is compiled hundreds of times on dev machines each day, I like to think I am contributing to clean air.
This might not have a very significant impact, but if every developer makes such small changes... collectively it will be a big impact. --
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> “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?” Yes, it’s called nuclear power
Nope. Nuclear can’t save us: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27835924 Well, unless you’re talking about fusion, which, at this point, truly is a “magical” solution.
Direct matter to energy conversion or nothing!
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 ar…
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23153043
Might be worth including some contact details in your public profile so people can reach out to you in future.
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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?
Obviously there are questions as to how well, as a human race, we are organized ... but we can 100% do it, right now. We just have to get a long and act responsibly.