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Request for Startups: Climate Tech

ycombinator.com

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Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#201

Post by darkmarmot »

rabernat wrote: post #184
jandrewrogers wrote: post #65

I've worked in "climate intelligence" for many years. The list overlooks one of the largest and most immediate opportunities around that market: the data infrastructure and analysis tools we have today are profoundly unfit for purpose. Just about everyone is essentially using cartography tools to do large-scale spatiotemporal analysis of sensor and telemetry data. The gaps for both features and practical scalability…

Agree 100%. This is big part of the motivation behind our new startup Earthmover: https://earthmover.io/ Our mission is to make it easier to work with scientific data at scale in the cloud, focusing mainly on the climate, weather, and geospatial vertical. My cofounder Joe Hamman and I are climate scientists who helped create the Pangeo project. We are also core devs on the Python packages Xarray and Zarr. We think th…

Elixir?

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#202

Post by ngoilapites »

brutusborn wrote: post #191
ngoilapites wrote: post #189

I am 10+ years in the Climate arena and it surprises me that most innovations ignore human behaviour: I see a gap. I see two folk types here: the Climate scientist and the carbon life cycle Analyst. How come social sciences (I am in particular hinting at behavioral research) have not been found yet a source of value?

I had the same thought. I’m in energy infra design so I care mainly about tech that helps me implement renewables easier. For consumers, simple tools to help them make green decisions would be useful (LCA as you mentioned). Im interested, what kind of behavioural research applications do you mean?

I imagine being able to create new behavioural trends linked to emerging business value.

I read serious PR literature and see parallels with the emerging literature on social tipping dynamics.

How could this social dynamics be materialised? How to steer them while creating value?

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#204

Post by jongjong »

Almost all climate tech is greenwashing; superficial solutions. Climate issues require deeper system changes. We need a system which encourages financial prudence and frugality instead of one which encourages financial recklessness, infinite growth, consumerism and bullshit jobs. The problem needs to be solved at the lowest monetary incentive layer.

How much energy is wasted by people travelling to and from their bullshit jobs? How many flights they need to take each year for holidays in order to heal from the accumulated stress of their mind-numbing jobs? How much surplus consumption do these bullshit jobs generate? How much plastic is thrown on the side of the road and into the ocean because people are too concerned about their own survival to give a crap about the environment and the future of mankind?

It's quite clear that if we all had less money and worked fewer hours, we would produce less greenhouse gases and live healthier, more fulfilled lives. Unfortunately, the current system is only good at depriving money from some of the population (while giving others a huge surplus) and it only ever demands more hours of work from everyone... So it barely even solves half of the first problem while making everything else worse.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#205

Post by beachy »

londons_explore wrote: post #6

The missing thing: international incentive structures. Today, most things are done the most economical way. And that might involve emitting carbon. A country which regulates the emissions of carbon will end up producing goods and services using carbon free methods - but those methods will often be less economically efficient than the carbon producing method, even at scale. So any country that goes all in on the carbo…

> So any country that goes all in on the carbon-free world will end up economically worse off -- it's goods won't be competitive in the global marketplace. A government cannot subsidize itself to competitiveness in all markets.

Isn't this just the tragedy of the commons writ large?

It makes no sense for anyone really to make personal sacrifices for the planet. Why should I stay at home riding my pushbike to the artisan markets when my neighbour will gleefully fly to Hawaii for his holidays, undoing in a few days whatever carbon reductions I've achieved in a year?

The logical course is to accept that your actions mean nothing and live a greedy life, amassing wealth at the cost of the planet's health and hoarding it for when things get bad, whether that's this generation or the next.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#206

Post by CalRobert »

ngoilapites wrote: post #189

I am 10+ years in the Climate arena and it surprises me that most innovations ignore human behaviour: I see a gap. I see two folk types here: the Climate scientist and the carbon life cycle Analyst. How come social sciences (I am in particular hinting at behavioral research) have not been found yet a source of value?

My goal is to make it painfully easy to live in communities where you can walk, bike, or take public transport to all of your daily needs, which is a completely low tech problem with a huge social science component.

The first step, I think, is making it obvious when purchasing a home whether you will be able to do this yourself.

Want to collaborate? I have a pilot project going for Ireland and am unsure where to take it - www.gaffologist.com (it's buggy AF but it got me my own home!)

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#207

Post by tofuahdude »

jongjong wrote: post #204

Almost all climate tech is greenwashing; superficial solutions. Climate issues require deeper system changes. We need a system which encourages financial prudence and frugality instead of one which encourages financial recklessness, infinite growth, consumerism and bullshit jobs. The problem needs to be solved at the lowest monetary incentive layer. How much energy is wasted by people travelling to and from their bul…

Ironically many YCombinator businesses support the opposite. Perhaps the first thing YC needs is a mirror.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#208

Post by CalRobert »

brutusborn wrote: post #191
ngoilapites wrote: post #189

I am 10+ years in the Climate arena and it surprises me that most innovations ignore human behaviour: I see a gap. I see two folk types here: the Climate scientist and the carbon life cycle Analyst. How come social sciences (I am in particular hinting at behavioral research) have not been found yet a source of value?

I had the same thought. I’m in energy infra design so I care mainly about tech that helps me implement renewables easier. For consumers, simple tools to help them make green decisions would be useful (LCA as you mentioned). Im interested, what kind of behavioural research applications do you mean?

For consumer purchases of disposable goods you can use a browser plugin like choosefinch.com/ (disclaimer - I work here).

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#209

Post by enduser »

tofuahdude wrote: post #207
jongjong wrote: post #204

Almost all climate tech is greenwashing; superficial solutions. Climate issues require deeper system changes. We need a system which encourages financial prudence and frugality instead of one which encourages financial recklessness, infinite growth, consumerism and bullshit jobs. The problem needs to be solved at the lowest monetary incentive layer. How much energy is wasted by people travelling to and from their bul…

Ironically many YCombinator businesses support the opposite. Perhaps the first thing YC needs is a mirror.

Unfortunately they only fund things that people want, not things that people need.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#210

Post by dopidopHN »

guelo wrote: post #135
paulcole wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does not require a massive shift in consumer preferences This is getting more and more irrelevant by the day. If “climate tech” fails to “fix” climate change (a goal which I believe to be impossible), then it’s not going to matter what people’s preferences are — the choices are going to be made for them and it won’t matter what they like/dislike.

You're confounding the people of today with the people of the future. We've learned over the last couple of decades that the people of today in general refuse to make any sacrifice for the people of the future. This doesn't change when the people of today are negatively affected because any sacrifice is felt in the future and doesn't mitigate the negative consequences of today.

Would you happen to have read “ministry for the future” by Kim Robinson ?

I just read the chapter where he elaborate on that exact idea.

I think it’s absolutely on point with our attitude as a society / specie

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