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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?

#71

Post by foundron »

anm89 wrote: post #36
trinovantes wrote: post #7

You'll probably make the biggest impact by working at a hedge fund and use your excess disposable income to lobby for change

True but nobody wants to hear it. Hell of a lot more effective than punishing yourself to reduce global meat consumption by .00000001% . Or just come to terms with the fact that for good or bad you just don't matter and try to live your life without doing unnecessary excessive harm.

It is not punishing to stop eating animals. It may seem that way if you're not used to it, but it is a fulfilling and healthy way to live with compassion for our planet and fellow living beings; who have consciousness, personality, love for their families and desire to live just like us.

Yes it is not effective if you're the only one in the world doing it, but it has always been about convincing others to drastically reduce or stop completely, whether through word of mouth or policy change.

Producing animal products is unsustainable and come with enormous environmental impacts [1][2]. We need both top-down and bottom-up approaches. So it's worthwhile what individuals and companies/governments choose to do. It's not one or the other.

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food [2] https://ourworldindata.org/land-use

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

#72

Post by lykr0n »

eappleby wrote: post #58
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…

NYC has begun installing solar panels on the schools. https://solstice.us/solstice-blog/nyc-solar-schools/

Begun. The way for us to actively make changes is to do donation projects today. The speed of government is not an advantage here.

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

#73

Post by aussiethebob »

I feel like the biggest problem with climate change is one of collective action.

Lets start with the assumption that it is possible to make a meaningful impact on climate change by significantly reducing our consumption, this requires significant sacrifices to an individuals lifestyle.

I'm talking big pictured stuff like not eating meat, no more international travel, no personal vehicles, less spend on medicine reducing life expectancy, limits on number of children.

Lets say we have credible evidence that if these things are done the situation will improve.

Now whether you take the perspective of being an individual, member of a community or even a country, why would you make those sacrifices if you have no guarantee that everyone else will. It's a big price to pay to 'set an example'.

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

#75

Post by foundron »

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…

All your points are great, but please don't discourage others to make ethical personal choices. Our culture needs to change and become more compassionate, sustainable and wise in terms the long-term impact of our actions.

How does a culture change? It starts with a courageous minority [1], composed of many individuals, who have "no impact as a consumer" but collectively they do have the power to influence the majority.

[1] https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...

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

#76

Post by DoreenMichele »

I think, in all seriousness, this isn't something you solve by asking random internet strangers for blurbs. You need to get in the habit of reading up, educating yourself and commit to finding an answer that makes sense to you.

I wish it were easier. I don't believe it is.

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

#77

Post by [deleted] »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #57
bluedevil2k wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ending your own life would be even more helpful, I’m surprised no one has suggested that yet /s

Jerry Springer had guests of this persuasion on the episode "I want to join a suicide cult." The group is being satirical but honestly they make some pretty salient points. https://youtu.be/C_TtTEw9w4s https://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/coefaq.html

[deleted]

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

#78

Post by literallyaduck »

Write up a proposal to become your company's environmental officer if your company doesn't have one, if they do, contact them and as how you can help lead the effort.

Lobby your company to create eco scholarships to fund ecological degrees.

Work on 3d modeling and help design devices which can change how we build homes and lower energy costs through passive designs.

Find ecology centric open-source projects and donate your skills.

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

#79

Post by davidjytang »

eappleby wrote: post #48

I feel the same way. My current company almost runs itself, so I've been spending a lot of time exploring ways I can help with climate change. Here is what I have been doing: * Reading a lot! I recommend Bill Gates' "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster" and Paul Hawken's "Drawdown". The path to zero carbon emissions seems impossible, but the more I read, the more the solutions seem intertwined, which gives me hope. * Wri…

My cousin installs solar panels mostly for SMB's manufacturing plants or warehouses with large roof space. His company pays them either 1) rent for the roof or 2) share the revenue on electricity sold. This kind of business is popular in my country where we get lots of sun shine and lots of SMBs.

Interested in hearing more about the idea you are vetting.

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

#80

Post by pl-94 »

I know you'll hate what I say, but us, engineers, we are basically useless for the climate change. Maybe just harmful.

We are trained to build a carbon intensive world. Our tools, our philosophy and our expectation require ssomehow more clusters hidden on a fancy new cloud architecture. Our optimization will be not compensated by the rebound effect.

Personally, I am totally a part of it. My neural networks require 64 V100 GPUs to be trained. And that's the optimized version!

I think we should seriously reset our way of life and create a new fun life that is sustainable and inspiring.

I believe that the agriculture is the area with the highest leverage effect. So my plan for the next 3 years is to sell all the shits I invested in, buy a farm, grow vegetables without chemical fertilizers, and invite my friends in joining this journey. What not adding some visual based monoriting tools or, some small robots, to automatize and scale this permaculture approach. That's fun and I am not so bad at it.

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