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What can a technologist do about climate change?

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Re: What can a technologist do about climate change?

#91

Post by jaimeyap »

Jemaclus wrote: post #57

I've asked this question a few times but haven't really gotten a satisfactory answer. There are a lot of what I might call "epic problems" out there. Malaria, homelessness, HIV, refugees, war, climate change, income inequality, gender inequality, hate crimes. I don't know anything about creating vaccines or cures for malaria or HIV. I don't have a degree in social work or behavior science. I don't have any experience…

You pay taxes. You vote. You spread ideas that you believe help the world. That in and of itself is immensely useful.

Your impact on the world isn't just what you directly build or finance. But also the impulses and ripples you leave through your interactions with other people.

As a sofware developer, I hope to make enough to one day to not worry about providing for myself and family. So I can more directly contribute to solving the world's issues. But until then, I can continue to try to be a good person and individual economic contributor. Donate what I can (time, brain power and money) to good causes. And to spread knowledge and ideas that, if they reach enough people, can make big differences.

Re: What can a technologist do about climate change?

#92

Post by sliverstorm »

Jemaclus wrote: post #57

I've asked this question a few times but haven't really gotten a satisfactory answer. There are a lot of what I might call "epic problems" out there. Malaria, homelessness, HIV, refugees, war, climate change, income inequality, gender inequality, hate crimes. I don't know anything about creating vaccines or cures for malaria or HIV. I don't have a degree in social work or behavior science. I don't have any experience…

Especially for social problems, my working theory is work to make people's lives better. A rising tide lifts all boats. The poor of today seem to be better off than the poor of two hundred years ago, as many things (including food) are available cheaper than ever.

How can technology specifically help? The first thing that comes to mind-

The entry of women into the workforce and subsequent advances in gender equality were, in my opinion, greatly aided by advances in textiles & housekeeping (washing machines, dishwashers, etc).

Re: What can a technologist do about climate change?

#93

Post by api »

Pxtl wrote: post #81

I'm disappointed that the one item most accessible to the software/consumer-electronics world: telecommuting, doesn't appear much in the article. Giving people the tools to properly manage a remote team (including non-experts that are unaccustomed to remoting) is something we can do and that will take commuters off the roads.

Telepresence and telecommuting is a big one. The energy savings that could be realized are staggering, and it's so far probably one of the Internet's greatest failed promises.

The Internet was supposed to break the tyranny of place, reducing not only the need for constant energy-guzzling commutes but also reducing the need to cluster in overpriced 'centers' like... well... Silicon Valley and San Francisco for example.

The reality almost seems opposite. The Internet seems to have intensified geo-centralization of industries, with the Internet itself being chief among these. The fact that the whole tech industry must huddle in the Bay Area is a clear demonstration of this failure-- these are the people who are best at using the net, and they can't use it this way.

So yeah, this is a big one and is a very worthy target.

Re: What can a technologist do about climate change?

#94

Post by jerf »

knieveltech wrote: post #85
jerf wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is absolutely, positively nothing wrong with making "lots" of money in a conventional manner, and donating it to an effective charity taking on the target task. In fact, in the spirit of the Kantian imperative, if everybody actually dropped their "merely productive" jobs and then tried to "directly solve poverty", we'd have just made the poverty problem much, much worse! You may want to Google the term "effecti…

Actually there's quite a bit wrong with this approach, the most obvious being the inefficiency incurred by funneling money through several layers of middlemen.

"You may want to Google the term 'effective altruism'."

Re: What can a technologist do about climate change?

#95

Post by jlebrech »

Pxtl wrote: post #81

I'm disappointed that the one item most accessible to the software/consumer-electronics world: telecommuting, doesn't appear much in the article. Giving people the tools to properly manage a remote team (including non-experts that are unaccustomed to remoting) is something we can do and that will take commuters off the roads.

virtual reality and telepresence, and large virtual shared monitor could help with productivity as a stepping stone till full vr is here.

Re: What can a technologist do about climate change?

#96

Post by jerf »

KingMob wrote: post #87
jerf wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is absolutely, positively nothing wrong with making "lots" of money in a conventional manner, and donating it to an effective charity taking on the target task. In fact, in the spirit of the Kantian imperative, if everybody actually dropped their "merely productive" jobs and then tried to "directly solve poverty", we'd have just made the poverty problem much, much worse! You may want to Google the term "effecti…

Except that solution cannot scale here. If most people with the ability to solve these issues chase after dollars, then there's fewer people actually working on it. Remember, there's no plan B for earth. We have to overcommit our resources to ensure success, since we won't get many "iterations" to find "product/market" fit.

"If most people with the ability to solve these issues chase after dollars, then there's fewer people actually working on it."

We just discussed someone who believes, probably correctly, that they have no personal ability to solve the problems. Few of these problems, if any, can be solved by any one person. Collective action is necessary. What's wrong with empowering the collective?

If the approach of powering the collective doesn't work, give up, eat and drink for tomorrow we die, because it's the only thing that can work.

Re: What can a technologist do about climate change?

#97

Post by Daishiman »

ommunist wrote: post #58
Daishiman wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well your evidence sure is overwhelming! Hundreds of man-years of research based on multiple, independent lines of evidence pointing towards a singular conclusion and you, the voice of reason, here to refute it all without the aid of satellite data, ice cores, spectrometers or computers models.

Ironically all that system is not designed to find the truth. It is designed to find more funding to support itself. I know that, because I did that myself. A single set of glacial cores from Greenland tells you more that all that satellite BS. If you remotely closely familiar with principles of climatic modelling, you 'd be rotfl, looking at someone trying to validate or backtrace that models. Because you'd be famil…

Yeah, your assertion doesn't seem to be validated at all. Not only do Jason Box's reconstructions refute that, but the reality is that with the current temperatures we have in Greenland the level of glacial melt is unprecedented. If not, mind explaining to us how exactly, if average temperatures have been higher in Greenland, then it hasn't experienced the melt it's going through right now?

https://www.skepticalscience.com/print.php?r=337

Re: What can a technologist do about climate change?

#98

Post by masterponomo »

First determine the ideal temperature and climate conditions. Then, if the ideal is cooler than the current temp, wear the same clothes twice as long between washings; if the ideal is warmer than the current temp, wear them half as many times. But I cannot overstate the importance of Step 1 before taking a potentially irreversible action. Coup de Grace: Apply the same calculus to your every energy-consuming/heat-generating activity, and lather/rinse/repeat (metaphorically).

Re: What can a technologist do about climate change?

#99

Post by Zach_the_Lizard »

The best you can do is lobby for denser development and ending the rules that force a suburban character. Suburbs are more wasteful than cities. Riding a bike to work generates less pollution than a car. Buildings themselves are more efficiently insulated when it's 100 units on a block vs. 100 single family homes on 50 acres. Deliveries can use more efficient and less polluting forms of transport, such as rail, more often or for more of the trip. Delivery trucks can stop on the block

While that's going on, lobbying for a carbon tax would be a great way to lower emissions from industrial or other sources.

Re: What can a technologist do about climate change?

#100

Post by oberstein »

cpr wrote: post #9

I still like Burt Rutan's take on the AGW question ( http://rps3.com/Files/AGW/EngrCritique.AGW-Science.v4.3.pdf ). He looks at it as an engineer, using generally-accepted data. His conclusion is that the alarmists are wrong.

I'm a fan of: http://stanford.edu/~moore/Boon_To_Man.html

Near the end: "If mankind had to choose between a warmer or a cooler climate, humans, most other animals and, after adjustment, most plants would be better off with higher temperatures. Not all animals or plants would prosper under these conditions; many are adapted to the current weather and might have difficulty making the transition. Society might wish to help natural systems and various species adapt to warmer temperatures (or cooler, should that occur). Whether the climate will warm is far from certain; that it will change is unquestionable."

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