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Ask HN: What can I do to actively fight climate change?

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Re: Ask HN: What can I do to actively fight climate change?

#121

Post by bjourne »

throw63738 wrote: post #18
andrewljohnson wrote: post #9

Ignore the crunchy comments saying don't eat meat, don't have kids, and don't drive. You have no impact as a consumer or influencer. What you can do is: * a) find someone working on climate change, and help write software for them part-time as a volunteer * b) brainstorm an idea for a site/app, and build it yourself (and of course post it to HN) * c) quit your job, join an organization focused on climate change, and…

As consumer you have an impact, at least it sets an example and gives credibility. This reminds me of "climate activists" who fly around the world in private jets to preach!

It really grinds my gears when people bring up effigies that does not exist at all in the real world. Very few people fly around the world in private jets. Of those who do, none are environmentalists.

Re: Ask HN: What can I do to actively fight climate change?

#122

Post by daxfohl »

vimy wrote: post #110
daxfohl wrote: post #108

Read up on biology and engineer a virus that creates a worldwide pandemic. It'll shut down cities, keep people from leaving their homes, decimate air travel industry, shut down manufacturing, and create an international supply chain crisis. If that doesn't work we're fucked.

Emissions only 8 % lower last year. Yet everyone still seems to think behavioral change will solve this. Nope. Geo-engineering, co2 capture and other tech are the only solution. The strange part is that even on HN people seem to think technological solutions are immoral. As if humans need to be punished for their ‘climate sins’ by lowering their living standard and comfort instead of just fixing the problem with our…

I wanted to disagree, that if we all do our part then it could accelerate and provide the change we need. Then I did a reality check.

If you look at the raw numbers here: https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-pe...

Even if we get the whole world down to India per capita averages, at 2 tons per capita, that's a global reduction of 60%. And it's maybe just barely enough? But I don't see a future where the world volunteers to go down to India living standards. And it's definitely not going to happen by a few people going vegetarian.

I think you're right. Fixing it in a way that doesn't require much lifestyle change is the only way out. Though finding anyone willing to pay for the fix is still a problem.

(That said, I'd happily encourage lifestyle changes too).

Re: Ask HN: What can I do to actively fight climate change?

#123

Post by vimy »

daxfohl wrote: post #122
vimy wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emissions only 8 % lower last year. Yet everyone still seems to think behavioral change will solve this. Nope. Geo-engineering, co2 capture and other tech are the only solution. The strange part is that even on HN people seem to think technological solutions are immoral. As if humans need to be punished for their ‘climate sins’ by lowering their living standard and comfort instead of just fixing the problem with our…

I wanted to disagree, that if we all do our part then it could accelerate and provide the change we need. Then I did a reality check. If you look at the raw numbers here: https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-pe... Even if we get the whole world down to India per capita averages, at 2 tons per capita, that's a global reduction of 60%. And it's maybe just barely enough? But I don't see a future whe…

> But I don't see a future where the world volunteers to go down to India living standards.

Nor a future where developing countries choose to stop growing to save the planet.

I also think most people would rather pay a bit more taxes to pay for climate tech than change their whole lifestyle. We’re betting on the wrong horse.

Re: Ask HN: What can I do to actively fight climate change?

#124

Post by softwaredoug »

I think just _reducing_ meat consumption can go a long way. We don’t all have to be vegetarians. Maybe if we treated meat like most treat alcohol - maybe something we do on special occasions like holidays or a unique restaurant. But why have your default lunch be the deli counter mystery meat ham?

Re: Ask HN: What can I do to actively fight climate change?

#125

Post by 71a54xd »

lykr0n wrote: post #51

I do: 1. Run a small solar array on my balcony, with recycled lithium batteries for storage. I've made ~100kW of power which I use to basically charge all my devices. 2. Growing Algae two do two things- producing biomass to convert into bio-fuel down the road, and remove carbon from the air. Rooftop solar & going electric (and destroying your gas car so you're taking it off the road) is the easiest to do, followed by…

As someone who also grows algae, I can tell you that unless you're running circulating pumps / aerators with solar it's sort of an uphill battle to make things "carbon neutral". Even if you don't construct the bioreactor from clear pvc and use natural sunlight. In high school I did a lot of work with UTEX [0], a portion of the plant science dept at UT Austin with a sole focus on algae (they operate the third largest repository in the world!).

In high school, I just thought it was cool because I could have as much free algae as possible, which otherwise would be $125 each.

Lately I've been primarily growing Chlorella (gold standard of hardy algae), an endemic strain to my current location, and Haematococcus pluvialis - a strain that produces large amounts of the anti-oxidant astaxanthin[1]. h

[0] - ttps://utex.org/ [1] - https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/SSS...

Re: Ask HN: What can I do to actively fight climate change?

#126

Post by DantesKite »

pl-94 wrote: post #87
DantesKite wrote: post #5

Probably coding a website to make it easy to lobby for nuclear reactors in the US. Ironically enough, even though Chinese is the biggest contributor of greenhouse gases right now, they're likely going to be the least in a few decades, considering how much engineering they're putting into nuclear reactor research and experimentation.

Let's not forget that electricity represents only a third of total electricity consumption. China, by with its energy intensive industry (steel, cement), will remain de facto one of the largest greenhouse vases contributor

Good point. I didn't consider that.

Re: Ask HN: What can I do to actively fight climate change?

#127

Post by jazzyjackson »

bjourne wrote: post #121
throw63738 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As consumer you have an impact, at least it sets an example and gives credibility. This reminds me of "climate activists" who fly around the world in private jets to preach!

It really grinds my gears when people bring up effigies that does not exist at all in the real world. Very few people fly around the world in private jets. Of those who do, none are environmentalists.

It is a common snipe at Leonardo DiCaprio, typified by headlines like: "Leonardo DiCaprio took an outrageous 8000 mile trip in a private jet to pick up an environmental award" [0]. Really I think being a hypocrite is a good strategy to get the press to write about you.

[0] https://qz.com/690321/leonardo-dicaprio-took-an-outrageous-8...

Re: Ask HN: What can I do to actively fight climate change?

#128

Post by giantg2 »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #120
AzzieElbab wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 to 1 the person you will be helping will get you to develop software that tells everyone not to eat meat and not to have kids. There are very few serious people in climate science.

Getting people not to eat heavy-carbon-usage-meat at scale might be impactful... like found a lab meat company or something. I just don't think being a vegetarian has impact... it's something you do to keep consistent with your worldview or morality, not to mitigate climate change.

How can a "no impact" activity like not eating meat scale to be impactful?

An individual's actions does have an impact, albeit a small one. It is measurable (CO2 savings from not eating that meat). Discouraging individuals from participating in individual efforts will prevent the group from achieving scale.

Re: Ask HN: What can I do to actively fight climate change?

#129

Post by giantg2 »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #9

Ignore the crunchy comments saying don't eat meat, don't have kids, and don't drive. You have no impact as a consumer or influencer. What you can do is: * a) find someone working on climate change, and help write software for them part-time as a volunteer * b) brainstorm an idea for a site/app, and build it yourself (and of course post it to HN) * c) quit your job, join an organization focused on climate change, and…

"Ignore the crunchy comments saying don't eat meat, don't have kids, and don't drive. You have no impact as a consumer or influencer."

Yet each of these actions can be quantified in terms of CO2 no emitted or resources preserved. There is an impact, and that impact becomes apparent given sufficient scale and time.

One's choice not to have kids could very well provide exponential savings when compared to one's personal lifetime emissions/consumption when looking over generations.

Re: Ask HN: What can I do to actively fight climate change?

#130

Post by andrewljohnson »

giantg2 wrote: post #128
andrewljohnson wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting people not to eat heavy-carbon-usage-meat at scale might be impactful... like found a lab meat company or something. I just don't think being a vegetarian has impact... it's something you do to keep consistent with your worldview or morality, not to mitigate climate change.

How can a "no impact" activity like not eating meat scale to be impactful? An individual's actions does have an impact, albeit a small one. It is measurable (CO2 savings from not eating that meat). Discouraging individuals from participating in individual efforts will prevent the group from achieving scale.

I'm not discouraging an individual from eating meat... I'm encouraging an individual to not buy into the idea that not eating meat will achieve their stated goal.
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