Ask HN: I'm just a programmer worried about climate change, how can I help?

114 点作者 y3k超过 6 年前

Hello everyone.Since I was a teenager I've been worried about climate change, this led me to reduce my CO2 emissions, consumerism, and waste as much as possible; I do the best I can to not use my car, plastic bags, straws or bottles, re-use water and many other actions that I think can help.However, every couple months I still read a new article stating that we are even closer than we thought to the point of no-return, even a few say we are already past it.As a father I'm really worried about my children's future, and cannot avoid feeling overwhelmed by the fact that even if I do my best I just cannot fight against huge corporations that does not want to do the best they can to help climate change.A couple days ago I read this http://carbon.ycombinator.com/ in HN's frontpage and got amazed about such creative and smart solutions, and cannot stop wondering what can I do to proactively help any of those, or any other idea, become true and help to repair the damage.Sadly I'm just a Software Engineer and I feel that I cannot help as, for example, a Genetic Engineer to make those ideas become true. I'm not a genius, nor a millionaire philanthropist, neither a clever startup founder.Is there anything I, a normal person, can do to actually help?Thank you for reading me.

36 条评论

vitovito超过 6 年前

Bret Victor thinks so, and outlines ways individual technologists can improve the situation, by helping others understand it and what needs to be built: <a href="http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/" rel="nofollow">http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/</a>

评论 #18332319 未加载

评论 #18335540 未加载

评论 #18332526 未加载

jlangenauer超过 6 年前

Although it has become fashionable to decry making personal changes as "irrelevant" and "ineffective" with the lie that since everyone isn't doing it, there's not point in anyone doing it, making changes to how you and your family live is still very important.Things you can do:1. Find an energy provider who sells green energy - here in Germany, it's possible (and common) to buy 100% green energy, but I don't know what it's like where you are. Even if it costs more, get the green energy - it's a big change you can make that won't affect your lifestyle one bit.2. Reduce the amount of red meat you eat. The environmental costs of this are well known. Give it up if you can, but if not, at least reduce it.3. See if you can fly less. If you fly intercontinenally, then the CO2 from that will dwarf almost anything else you do. Again, this is something that's easy to say, but it's something that's very effective.Those are the changes you can make in your personal life. There are plenty of other good suggestions here as to how to make systemic changes.

评论 #18337085 未加载

评论 #18338822 未加载

评论 #18344432 未加载

评论 #18335934 未加载

diafygi超过 6 年前

> Is there anything I, a normal person, can do to actually help?Absolutely. I work in cleantech, and you should, too! Solar and wind are economical, so now the biggest issue is scaling them up. That means tons and tons of problem solving, which means great engineering jobs!If you think about it, the switch to renewables means we need to deal with situations where the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing, yet still keep the lights on. That means you have to build in a ton of storage and load control, which means good communication and analysis, which means software! Something like half of the impact of the energy transition will be done through software optimizing the deployment and operation of clean energy assets.Anyway, please check out my previous comments on recommendations when looking for climate impact work. Overall, the biggest impact per unit time spent is working as a regulator[1]. Next is working at a cleantech company[2].[1]: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/energy/comments/8l5yhw/whats_the_best_way_for_an_engineer_to_make_a/dzdeptb/?context=3" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/energy/comments/8l5yhw/whats_the_be...</a>[2]: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15127154" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15127154</a>

评论 #18338114 未加载

评论 #18334799 未加载

yassam超过 6 年前

Get involved in grassroots politics, e.g. <a href="https://350.org/" rel="nofollow">https://350.org/</a>Personal action (such as reducing your own CO2 emissions) is good but not enough. Collective action to put pressure on governments to regulate CO2 emissions is what's needed.We already have the tech to reduce emissions to safe levels. What we lack is the political will to use it.

评论 #18332964 未加载

throwaway9382超过 6 年前

If you're a typical tech employee/well-to-do person - travel less. Air travel is likely the single largest component of your carbon footprint, and with high quality communication tools and good management, travel for work is not as important. (Plus I think if folks introspected they'd admit fun is a significant motivation for their work trips.)

评论 #18333777 未加载

评论 #18335875 未加载

tomhoward超过 6 年前

Here's one factor to consider, which might be controversial to some...You can use your skills to earn as much money as you can, so you can purchase clean energy/goods, and invest in clean-tech assets.The reason carbon emissions are still such a problem is that carbon-emitting fuels are still generally the cheapest.Clean-tech purchases like domestic solar panels and electric cars are still quite costly, because they're still in the immature stages of development and market growth.The way to drive down the prices of these kinds of items is to increase demand, which you can help to do by purchasing them.The more people do this, the cheaper they'll become, and then the more affordable they'll be for less wealthy people.This is controversial as people tend to equate commerce with environmental harm. There is some truth in this, but it's only a partial truth: environmental harm comes from commerce that is powered by dirty fuels (or that has other harmful externalities).By increasing our commercial activity that has little or no negative environmental impact, then re-investing the gains in goods that have a further positive environmental impact, we can each make a solid contribution to undoing the damage.

评论 #18335138 未加载

jefflombardjr超过 6 年前

This may not be a popular opinion here, but I feel like engineers disease is actually contributing to the problem. [0] Every time I see a new carbon sequestration startup I die a little at the arrogance of the engineers that they think they can beat nature at that game. Let alone in the time span of ~30 years that we need it to happen. If those brilliant engineers had spent time working with domain experts (i.e. "talking to your users") I feel like some of the effort might be better spent elsewhere. This family of plants is incredibly efficient at sequestering carbon: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poaceae" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poaceae</a>. At a minimum, why not have a startup that exploits something like this and use nature's ability to heal itself instead of trying to reinvent the wheel? The mere perspective that we need to "save the environment" is a fallacy. We live in the environment, and we need to care for it, it's not something to be blocked and cordoned off.My point is, yes you can help, but it might not be by writing software or engineering a product. A lot of brilliant people have been aware of this problem and working hard to combat it, it is arrogant to think we can disrupt something we don't fully understand, instead of doing something solo, try to join up with others already fighting the good fight. You want to help try reading and learn from experts in the field. Then with your programming background you might see something in a different light. Talk to people and ask questions from your perspective!For anyone who is interested in combating climate change I highly suggest these three books, they have been perspective changing for me:1. Permaculture By Bill Mollison (or this free online course <a href="https://open.oregonstate.edu/courses/permaculture/" rel="nofollow">https://open.oregonstate.edu/courses/permaculture/</a>) 2. The Hard Rain By Timothy Egan (Think SFO is relatively green? Think again the 'clean' power projects have been wreaking havoc on the ecosystem in the PNW) 3. Rethinking the War on Invasives By Tao OrionIn addition to that as others have indicated, reduce meat consumption. Don't think it matters? Read about the dust bowl, and those areas of the country covered in sage brush? Yeah a-lot of that is from overgrazing.[0] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10812975" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10812975</a>

ppseafield超过 6 年前

Reduce your meat consumption or go vegetarian or vegan.A major cause of deforestation is to grow corn / soybeans to feed to livestock. The forests, natural carbon sinks, are lost, and the livestock increase the amount of methane in the atmosphere. It takes 9 times the amount of land to make beef vs. growing plants. It uses a lot more freshwater to grow the food, and much more to give to the animals.

评论 #18333215 未加载

评论 #18347282 未加载

评论 #18335069 未加载

DrNuke超过 6 年前

May you volunteer a couple of hours afterwork in your week to some environmental charity at local or regional level? As a STEM professional very able with computers, your skills might help a lot without touching hard-nosed activism or politics.

评论 #18333073 未加载

评论 #18332534 未加载

justaaron超过 6 年前

devise an alternative to "proof of work" blockchain ledgers.cryptocurrencies are sucking down electricity at a rate larger than many nations, and all for literally doing NOTHING useful...(majorly non eco activity...)

评论 #18333231 未加载

评论 #18334713 未加载

BLKNSLVR超过 6 年前

Don't despair that you're not part of the vanguard.Take the opportunities and make the necessary changes to your own life as they present themselves - which you appear to be doing already, ie. leading by example.Something I found effective, which is obvious in hindsight and I only found out by accident, is quantifying the financial benefits - because this resonates with people. I purchased solar panels a few years back, and mentioning my power bills in comparison to those without solar panels does draw attention.I just wanted to be able to quantify it to myself, and ended up documenting on a website so I could point interested parties to it: <a href="http://electricity.atcf.com.au/economics/" rel="nofollow">http://electricity.atcf.com.au/economics/</a> (hasn't been updated in a couple of years...)This is a single example, and quantifying it took planning and effort that doesn't translate to other things like not using plastic bags or straws. Overall, leading by example is the first step, and then making that example publicly available is a second step that's likely easily accessible to an HN'r.I think if you're able to quanitfy your savings from minimising car usage, THAT would provide interesting financials that would attract attention.Write an instructional and experiential blog, mention it to your friends and family, let the influence expand at its own pace, maybe linking to it in related HN comments ;)

piocho超过 6 年前

Here is a link to another thread on HM regarding the same problem : <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18276987" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18276987</a>I definitely think that we can't do anything as developers (maybe optimizing process to consume less, but that's not obvious). And here is why :- we used computers/servers/hard disks/etc that are made of rare-earth metals (which required a lot of energy to be extracted and are a environmental disaster (first link in google : <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/aug/07/china-rare-earth-village-pollution" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/aug/07/china-ra...</a>). - big datacenters, in which our compagnies are involved into, require a fabulous amount of energy to work (cooling système, electricity, etc), proably more that average cities.However, what you (and we) could do as citizen could be : - buy from local/bio producers - do not buy shitty products coming directly from china that will last 1 week and then will be broken for no reason. - think twice before buying new product (not only electronic ones). do I need this new smartphone (which, by the way, his cost is half a salary or a all salary for most of the people ?) can I repear it ? - do not buy big companies' products (coke,nutella,etc). They are destroying environement (mexican vilages have less and less water because of coca-cola, nutala are heavily using palm oil...) Those are only 2 examples.Easy to write, not to do ...> Sadly I'm just a Software Engineer and I feel that I cannot help as, for example, a Genetic Engineer to make those ideas become true. I'm not a genius, nor a millionaire philanthropist, neither a clever startup founder.Most of us are in the same case. I'm actually reading Gunter Pauli's books regarding the "Blue Economy". -> <a href="https://www.theblueeconomy.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.theblueeconomy.org/</a> There are plenty of "simple" ideas that might be "easy" to implements in our life as side-projects.

jungler超过 6 年前

Yes, you can do something.1. Basic principles: Do a bit of philosophy. Figure out some things that would be more sustainable, more accessable, more energy efficient. Software has a sizable impact on many processes, though public discussion tends to discount it. Consider how to align your career against those goals. Test your goals for coherence: You want to get them all aligned together so that you're constantly propelled in a good direction.2. Plan a specific design: You might not be able to make the system you envision, but you can probably find some kind of leverage on the problem, whether it's collecting information, creating a prototype, contributing to an existing project, or marketing a better solution.3. Create a feedback loop: Your first attempt is not likely to solve climate change. So your purpose in trying something is not to immediately solve it, but to find feedback that will guide you or others towards that goal. For example, if you think you have a technical solution that will reduce energy usage, you need to find a benchmark that you can use to measure and improve that solution. Ideally you develop a feedback mechanism like a workout log, where you can easily see your progression in training volume and intensity.Historically, many breakthroughs result from this kind of effort distributed across many people, attacking different angles of a problem. A lot of the individual aspects like "recycle your waste" are effective when there's broad enforcement measures that make it the optimal or only option - it was less than a hundred years ago that taking your trash to the backyard incinerator was a common practice in all industrialized cities, and less than two hundred that dumping it out the window and onto the street was acceptable. We have plenty of things to improve still!

flukus超过 6 年前

Write fast, efficient low level code and don't put developer experience above users. The carbon cost of modern bloat is immense.

titojankowski超过 6 年前

Come join the Carbon Doomsday project, we need backend help!<a href="http://carbondoomsday.com" rel="nofollow">http://carbondoomsday.com</a><a href="https://gitter.im/giving-a-fuck-about-climate-change/Lobby" rel="nofollow">https://gitter.im/giving-a-fuck-about-climate-change/Lobby</a>

评论 #18350953 未加载

gadders超过 6 年前

You could try protesting in China? Especially about their power plants.<a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2017/04/interactive-chart-explains-worlds-top-10-emitters-and-how-theyve-changed" rel="nofollow">https://www.wri.org/blog/2017/04/interactive-chart-explains-...</a>

meric超过 6 年前

One example I can imagine you can help with: if your city doesn't have it, you could put its train timetables in an app. There's one for Sydney, it's called TripView. A train timetable available in a convenient manner will help people rely on trains more and reduce CO2 emissions.

评论 #18332172 未加载

评论 #18334427 未加载

评论 #18332192 未加载

bigato超过 6 年前

Going vegan is the single biggest way to reduce your impact on the environment:<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/veganism-environmental-impact-planet-reduced-plant-based-diet-humans-study-a8378631.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families...</a><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding...</a>The next step would probably be engaging other people in veganism and in spreading the word about it.

评论 #18336760 未加载

Libbum超过 6 年前

What country do you live in? I work at a climate research institute and have connections all over. I could perhaps put you in contact with a local research team.Sadly, I'd say that a lot of current research tools are pretty shoddy when it comes to implementation. Not that they give incorrect results, more-so that there is no way to really interop systems with any ease. No standards, only a small culture of open source etc etc. Having a software engineer on speed dial to consult with when designing and implementing new frontier research tools would be of immense help in my opinion.

评论 #18350961 未加载

评论 #18334974 未加载

wilsonnb3超过 6 年前

The only thing that you can do that will matter is convincing other people to do something.A collective problem requires collective action. Anything you do alone will not make a difference.

评论 #18336432 未加载

troyvit超过 6 年前

Tongue-in-cheek get a job in ad-tech. You'll get paid lots of money helping to sell products that are at least 4 steps away from any real economic activity, which means they are also very distant from creating anything that requires a carbon footprint. As a bonus you might be able to work from home. No driving means lower carbon footprint.Yeah you're still helping data centers consume electricity but it's a lot cleaner than working in coal.

chjango_u超过 6 年前

We're a blockchain startup and while we're not directly solving global warming, we are pioneering the bleeding edge technology for building in economic incentives for applications like lowering carbon emissions, water waste, or fossil fuel usage. We believe that through the clever use of blockchains, we might create the incentives for a greener planet.If you're a go, rust, or JavaScript developer, we're hiring--tendermint.com/careers

评论 #18344260 未加载

评论 #18350975 未加载

konschubert超过 6 年前

I justed wanted to say hi because I'm totally in the same boat. Since I was 12 I've been watching this and my fears have been confirmed.I also wanted to say that changing individual behavior isn't going to fix it by much. The fuel I don't burn, others will burn it instead.The only way to fix this is 1) technology to make C02 emissions less profitable than green tech and 2) policy.As a technologist, I try to focus on 1).

worldexplorer超过 6 年前

Surprisingly no one mentioned about 3 R(Reduce, Reuse and recycle) which is quite popular in India (don't know about other countries).<a href="https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange//kids/solutions/actions/waste.html" rel="nofollow">https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange//kids/solutions/actions/w...</a>

ex3xu超过 6 年前

Here's an earlier HN post on carbon removal technologies, some of which seem quite cost effective and promising: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18285606" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18285606</a> Perhaps you can volunteer your time or other resources towards some of these initiatives.

chadshaquery超过 6 年前

Volunteer or donate to the Veterans' Greenhouse non-profit. They're applying recent advancements in computer science to agriculture specifically to reduce carbon output and water consumption by industrial agriculture. <a href="https://veteransgreenhouse.org" rel="nofollow">https://veteransgreenhouse.org</a>

ishikawa超过 6 年前

Power companies have a great demand for software. By working with green companies you are helping the world get cleaner. By working with coal or gas-fired Power plants to manage, control and reduce their emissions, you are also helping the world. I have worked for the past 13 years doing that.

评论 #18350978 未加载

duchenne超过 6 年前

Climate research relies heavily on simulations. You could probably work in a climate research institute to improve the modeling software. This kind of coding of also interesting from a technical point of view: very big computation, lot of data, parallelism.source: a climatologist friend.

评论 #18350980 未加载

taolg超过 6 年前

Have you considered Tesla?<a href="https://www.tesla.com/careers/search#/?department=1" rel="nofollow">https://www.tesla.com/careers/search#/?department=1</a>

评论 #18350990 未加载

siddhantin超过 6 年前

Use highly optimized code, logical operators , small alias for variables and it will save electricity, as every byte is processed by computing. saving electricity = saving climate

runjake超过 6 年前

Since nobody else said it: Write efficient code using efficient software running on efficient hardware in efficient data centers.It can really add up.

评论 #18350984 未加载

gargarplex超过 6 年前

Sounds like the work at a startup team could get together with the carbon.yc team and help route software engineers into jobs.

666lumberjack超过 6 年前

Choose not to have (biological) children.

评论 #18350994 未加载

dreamdu5t超过 6 年前

Host with AWS. They are 50% powered by renewables and have a long-term goal of 100%. They’ve also helped build solar and wind farms generating 250+ gigawatts of renewable energy.

评论 #18333026 未加载

评论 #18333237 未加载

paulcole超过 6 年前

You already had kids. There’s nothing you can do now that can undo the impact of that on the environment.You can always stop eating meat, move to a smaller home, get rid of your cars, etc. But only do it if you want. There’s really not much of a point.

bobxyz超过 6 年前

Stop worrying about nothing. All the noise around ecology is only used to legitimize new taxes.Even the concept of vegetarianism is a sham. If everyone starts consuming vegetable food, yields will have to be ensured by standardizing crops and using pesticides.Pollution does not come from everyone, but from the big industrial groups.You will never have ecology by advocating a society based on economic growth.It is a rude and dishonest lure.Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator