Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr • Hacker News Board

Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr

#61

Post by dr_orpheus » Wed, May 04, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

aresant wrote: post #13

The most encouraging signal on climate to me is that the “money” seems to finally be waking up. ESG policies - backed by data monitoring requirements to combat greenwashing from sovereign wealth funds are real, arduous, and creating business and capital incentives with environmental alignment. Early stage climate tech funds - of which their are many today where there were few even a few years ago - are giving a new g…

> Early stage climate tech funds

An interesting fact in this vein is that by some estimates 14% of all venture capital is going towards climate tech [0]. Its a pretty broad category and really a hard number to pin down but it is still encouraging. They define "climate tech" as something that:

1. Directly mitigate or remove emissions

2. Help us to adapt to the impacts of climate change

3. Enhance our understanding of the climate.

[0] https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/sustainability/publicatio...

Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr

#62

Post by bachmeier » Wed, May 04, 2022, 5:35 PM UTC

_vdpp wrote: post #41

perihelions wrote: post #33

They don't even have a nuclear engineering department! They might as well endow a theology seminary; it's the same category of problem-solving. This is mainly prestige signalling, isn't it? He's a Silicon Valley oligarch, and this is the elite Silicon Valley school. If there's some additional, meritocratic factor specific to Stanford, for this type of billion-dollar gift... what is it? edit: Perhaps it's synergies wi…

99% of climate change effort is social signaling, the other 1% is engineers and scientists working on more efficient, cleaner technologies. What I see here is lots of money for talks, articles, conferences, and “awareness.” Climate conferences are always held in nice places that you have to fly to. They’d do more for the environment by taking that money and paying people to pick up trash on the side of the highway. O…

> 99% of climate change effort is social signaling, the other 1% is engineers and scientists working on more efficient, cleaner technologies.

China, India, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, and Iran combined produce about four times the GHG emissions of the US (and nearly half of all world emissions). Move forward in time 30 years and add in countries with large populations like Pakistan, and it's clear that making alternatives to fossil fuels cheaper is a big deal for climate change. That's not to say the US political situation is of trivial importance, but it's not accurate to say we should ignore everything else.

Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr

#63

Post by tofuahdude » Wed, May 04, 2022, 5:36 PM UTC

perihelions wrote: post #33

They don't even have a nuclear engineering department! They might as well endow a theology seminary; it's the same category of problem-solving. This is mainly prestige signalling, isn't it? He's a Silicon Valley oligarch, and this is the elite Silicon Valley school. If there's some additional, meritocratic factor specific to Stanford, for this type of billion-dollar gift... what is it? edit: Perhaps it's synergies wi…

> They don't even have a nuclear engineering department!

Why criticize that they're establishing something on the basis of not having something?

Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr

#64

Post by [deleted] » Wed, May 04, 2022, 5:37 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #15

daterdots wrote: post #11

I am concerned about the incredible concentration of money and resources into a few academic institutions. Obviously Stanford is an incredible school, but I am not sure Stanford will do more with $1B than 10 2nd tier schools would do with $100M each.

> I am not sure Stanford will do more with $1B than 10 2nd tier schools would do with $100M each Absent data, it's difficult to say. There are economies of scale, even if just in experience administering such projects.

[deleted]

Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr

#65

Post by tofuahdude » Wed, May 04, 2022, 5:37 PM UTC

olivermarks wrote: post #43

'Mr. Doerr joins a growing list of ultrawealthy men donating huge sums of money to the fight against global warming. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said in 2020 said he was committing $10 billion of his own money to a new initiative he called the Bezos Earth Fund, and last year detailed how some of the money would be spent. Mr. Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, said in 2019 he would spend $500 million to help close co…

Taking private money and making it public for the purpose of combating a global crisis is objectively a good thing. Cynical paranoia is not helping.

Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr

#66

Post by crypot » Wed, May 04, 2022, 5:39 PM UTC

This is great news. We need to find a way to stop the runaway global cooling and warm the planet enough to melt the ice caps. A warmer earth will support a much more robust ecosystem, helping to ensure our survival as a species.

Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr

#67

Post by tofuahdude » Wed, May 04, 2022, 5:39 PM UTC

kwertyoowiyop wrote: post #16

Tell me you care more about your legacy than actually helping the world without telling me you care more about your legacy than actually helping the world.

Why criticize someone for caring about their legacy when they're making an enormous contribution to the public good?

Wrong lens. Who cares about his ego when he's making a real impact?

Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr

#68

Post by oversocialized » Wed, May 04, 2022, 5:48 PM UTC

perihelions wrote: post #33

They don't even have a nuclear engineering department! They might as well endow a theology seminary; it's the same category of problem-solving. This is mainly prestige signalling, isn't it? He's a Silicon Valley oligarch, and this is the elite Silicon Valley school. If there's some additional, meritocratic factor specific to Stanford, for this type of billion-dollar gift... what is it? edit: Perhaps it's synergies wi…

No post body was provided.

Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr

#69

Post by thebean11 » Wed, May 04, 2022, 5:49 PM UTC

tofuahdude wrote: post #63

perihelions wrote: post #33

They don't even have a nuclear engineering department! They might as well endow a theology seminary; it's the same category of problem-solving. This is mainly prestige signalling, isn't it? He's a Silicon Valley oligarch, and this is the elite Silicon Valley school. If there's some additional, meritocratic factor specific to Stanford, for this type of billion-dollar gift... what is it? edit: Perhaps it's synergies wi…

> They don't even have a nuclear engineering department! Why criticize that they're establishing something on the basis of not having something?

Are they establishing a nuclear engineering department? I don't see that in the article

Re: Stanford gets $1.1B for new climate school from John Doerr

#70

Post by burkaman » Wed, May 04, 2022, 5:52 PM UTC

olivermarks wrote: post #43

'Mr. Doerr joins a growing list of ultrawealthy men donating huge sums of money to the fight against global warming. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said in 2020 said he was committing $10 billion of his own money to a new initiative he called the Bezos Earth Fund, and last year detailed how some of the money would be spent. Mr. Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, said in 2019 he would spend $500 million to help close co…

> Mr. Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, said in 2019 he would spend $500 million to help close coal-fired power plants.

Did he, or was he just prepping his image for a presidential run? The website (https://www.beyondcarbon.org/) and associated social media accounts have not been updated since he launched his campaign two and a half years ago, and I can't find any specific actions or plans or people. There's quite a bit of information about Mike Bloomberg though. Seems like it was just an issue-specific campaign website.

Breakthrough Energy is venture capital, not philanthropy. It is intended to make a profit. The Gates Foundation doesn't appear to do any climate change work.

Bezos Earth Fund does seem to be actively donating real money to real projects, which is nice. Bezos earns a "could be worse" badge on this particular topic.