
Ask HN: Who Here Is Working to Fix the Environment? - patientplatypus
So yesterday I posted this (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20339865) and it seems that a lot of people are very pessimistic about the future state of the environment. And today I&#x27;ve learned that insects are dying at an alarming rate (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20352002). It seems like every day there is a new piece of bad news.<p>Well...<p>Are there any people who are actively working on fixing the environment? It seems like if we don&#x27;t do anything then in ten or twenty years (my lifetime!) there will be a &quot;crunch&quot; where something truly horrific may happen. In one sense, fixing the environment is the <i>only</i> issue we have because if we don&#x27;t fix it then nothing else will matter in the face of how horrible the consequences will be.<p>How are you fixing it? What technologies are you using? How did you get into this? I&#x27;d like to know everything and anything people on HN are doing that&#x27;s geeky to solve this thing.
======
perfunctory
So if I interpret you correctly, by "working on fixing the environment" you
mean tech projects? I don't want to dismiss anyone's efforts but I have become
convinced that believing in technological solution to the environment/climate
problem at this stage is just another form of denial. We already have all the
technology we can use in the short/medium term, and we don't have time for the
long term fundamental breakthroughs any more. Improved energy efficiency won't
help either[0]

We need fundamental cultural and policy change. The question is how to achieve
it. Despite popular believe I don't think voting matters. Think about any
significant societal change in the last century or so. Women suffrage, civil
rights movement, anti-war movement, gay rights. None of these were initiated
by the parliament. They all started as a popular rebellion and direct action.

So what are we to do.

\- Change your lifestyle. Less flying, driving, meat.

\- Divest fossil

\- Get out of the techno bubble and get your hands dirty with direct action
and civil disobedience. e.g. [1]

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox)

[1] [https://rebellion.earth/](https://rebellion.earth/)

~~~
collyw
Agree on almost everything you said, but not having children will have far
more impact than giving up meat. Going childfree almost like a taboo subject
when discussing the environment.

~~~
rorykoehler
If we don't have children who are we saving the environment for?

~~~
chriswarbo
What are you referring to by the word "we"?

If by "we" you're referring to those like the parent comment (no pun intended)
who aren't having children, it's presumably to help save the environment for
those children that will grow up in the world that we leave behind.

If by "we" you're referring to a hypothetical scenario where the entire human
species stops reproducing and hence ceases to exist, then I think you're in
the wrong place because (as far as I'm aware) this is a discussion about
actual people taking individual actions in the real world.

~~~
rorykoehler
I meant it in both ways. Asking people not to have children is ridiculous. I
can't believe it's even entertained. Maybe asking people to have smaller
families but that isn't an issue for most people on here I would assume.

~~~
chriswarbo
> Asking people not to have children is ridiculous.

Why?

> I can't believe it's even entertained.

Why?

> I meant it in both ways.

As I implied above, the second situation is utter lunacy. This seems to be
nothing more than concern trolling about the perils of underpopulation.

~~~
rorykoehler
Why? Because we're not here to be selfless vassals. We have an innate
biological drive to reproduce and a core part of the human/animal experience.
Its like asking people not to breathe or not to eat.

~~~
chriswarbo
> Because we're not here to be selfless vassals.

Who says? We can be anything we want to (within the laws of physics).

> We have an innate biological drive to reproduce and a core part of the
> human/animal experience.

True, but the existence of contraception, sterilisation, celibacy, etc. are
all examples that such "innate biological drives" are pretty trivial to avoid.

> Its like asking people not to breathe or not to eat.

Breathing not so much, since it's automatic (with a manual override). Eating
is comparable, and is also a drive that many people successfully override for
rational reasons (AKA "a healthy diet", rather than the "innate biological
drive" to eat as much fat and sugar as possible). It's also something that
public health efforts are trying to help us cut down on.

~~~
rorykoehler
> True, but the existence of contraception, sterilisation, celibacy, etc. are
> all examples that such "innate biological drives" are pretty trivial to
> avoid.

You don't have kids because of the physical act. That's the how not the why.

------
jacknews
Our family has recently changed to a flexitarian menu, cutting beef almost
entirely, with many meals being vegetarian, and others substituting some of
the meat with potatoes, tofu, green jackfruit, mushrooms, etc. Far from a
hardship, we've been delighted by the much more varied new menu.

We've also bought some land that had been tropical forest, but was recently
cleared for plantation purposes, and we've bio-chared it with waste charcoal
scraps from the prevalent nearby charcoal kilns (about 3 tons of carbon
sequestered, for the 0.3ha), and replanted it with a sort-of permaculture mix
of various flowering fruit trees (we'll add some beehives in a couple of
years), and longer-term restorative hardwoods.

We also bought another 5ha, waiting the same treatment, and we've encouraged
others to do the same. 2 takers so far, for another 3ha. Biochar is
recommended as 1-5kg/m2 so 1ha means sequestering 10tons of carbon

Assuming the science works (and it seems from online sources that it does -
we'll see), I think this kind of biochar carbon sequestration could be quite a
big help, and it's a very low-tech solution, which also improves yields, so
doubly effective for forest.

Of course this is perhaps less-good than if the forest had just been left
intact, but what to do?

~~~
toomuchtodo
Do you have a blog or mailing list I could follow? Our family would be
interested in following along and doing some similar activities.

~~~
jacknews
Thanks, but unfortunately not, I'm a little allergic to social media and
especially self-promotion etc, but I posted here as I'm excited myself by the
journey we've started.

I'll consider it, if it encourages others, though I'm no expert.

------
cmos
I work at Woods Hole Oceanographic Research - I started there two years ago. I
run a lab that refurbishes the electronics that collects data from the
sensors. Technology wise we are fairly slow to adopt new things, and making
changes to the infrastructure can take a few years. It is incredibly
interesting and fun! There is both a mix of real time issues that pop up that
need nasa style engineering to fix (i.e. logging on remotely to a buoy and
adding a script to control the power module as a clock that triggers the main
loop in the microcontroller interrupt broke) and plenty of mysteries to solve
(why did the mooring in the Irminger Sea disappear?)

The program I work for is OOI, where the goal is to have long term consistent
readings of the ocean. We are funded by the NSF and deploy and recover over 20
moorings with sensors on the surface, along the riser column and at the
anchor.

Before this job I made video games.. this is far more gratifying. I am
redesigning and upgrading the electronics in the buoys one section at a time
and already there has been a large improvement in uptime. Oceanography is a
fairly new science and there are a lot of opportunities to make collecting and
analyzing data easier and more accessible.

I bike to work along the ocean for 7 miles, take a small boat for 25 minutes,
then another 3 miles along the ocean.

We always need engineers..
[https://careers.whoi.edu/](https://careers.whoi.edu/)

My best advice to live with a lighter footprint? try to be more vegan, take
the bus, bike more, vote.

------
shylands
I'm a big believer in taking action. Even if you aren't sure how you can help
by trying you never know what will happen based on your actions. Two months
ago I became motivated to help fix the climate, so far I have:

Started [https://techimpactmakers.com/](https://techimpactmakers.com/) to
bring together tech workers to communicate and collaborate around the climate
issue.

Launched [https://climatechoice.co/](https://climatechoice.co/) a website
which educates you about how you can help prevent earth’s climate breaking
down today.

Announced The Climate Fixathon. The world's first online hackathon for makers
to help fix the climate. Full launch next week -
[https://fixathon.io](https://fixathon.io)

My long-term goal is to figure out how to do this full-time.

~~~
chriswarbo
> My long-term goal is to figure out how to do this full-time.

It would be good to know if you come across any advice for this (e.g.
specialised job boards, etc.)

So far I've managed to avoid jobs I consider to be less ethical (e.g.
developing proprietary software, high frequency trading, etc.)

Now I'm wondering how I can do something that's a net positive, rather than
just keeping the cogs turning in some indifferent corporate machine...

~~~
shylands
There are several job boards. I'm trying to figure out how to do it for my own
projects.

The most obvious way is to think of an idea that helps fight climate change
but also makes money (easier said than done).

Also been considering if there is the potential to gain suppose on Patreon or
similar from the community for working on climate action projects like some
open-source developers do.

~~~
ForHackernews
Oasis LMF is an open-source climate risk modelling framework funded by the
insurance industry: [https://oasislmf.org/](https://oasislmf.org/)

You could try to contribute to that or get hired to work on that project or
something similar.

------
CalRobert
In San Diego, went to my local planning board's meetings to push for allowing
more density and adding cycle infra. Failed, of course; I was the lone weirdo
(and nobody else under 65 could make it to their weekday meetings for some
crazy reason).

Moved to Europe (combination of things like wanting more vacation time but
also generally lower carbon footprint, and taxes aren't supporting quite as
much pillaging)

Cycled or walked to work full time until I got a remote job.

Eat little meat, primarily chicken.

Bought cottage on 3.5 acres of grazing land and have let most of it run wild.
15 minute bike ride from train station.

Renewably sourced electricity

Made tool to help others find homes near public transport and bike routes in
my country (Ireland) (why do real estate sites assume everyone drives???) -
www.gaffologist.com . This came after people kept saying how lucky I was to
cycle to work - it wasn't luck any more than having an extra bedroom is luck.
I filtered for it. (I am lucky to be able to afford it, though)

Before I left Dublin, participated in actions involving protecting bicycle
lanes with your body
([https://twitter.com/IBIKEDublin](https://twitter.com/IBIKEDublin))

Spend money on subscriptions to things like Dark Mountain, The Times (which is
pro-cycling), etc.. Support the green party financially (and by voting of
course)

Though my footprint is still not great because I fly too much. I have 2 kids.
Of course, replacement rate should be OK, but that's only if we're already
where we need to be.

I'd like to find a way to make my _work_ contribute to finding a fix, and not
just my lifestyle, but as with everyone else I've got bills to pay (getting a
roof rethatched isn't cheap). I spent a few years after college trying to work
for environmental orgs getting rebuffed and gave up to just get a regular job
after that.

And that's the real problem, isn't it? We push everyone by design into a life
where they have some sort of massive financial burden, whether it's student
debt or housing debt or lack of prospects, and then they're forced to optimize
for cash and not for what they think really matters.

------
amiga_500
Who is working on trying to make people feel compelled to buy more stuff, that
they don’t need?

~~~
tootie
Me me me! I've spent a year working for the most egregiously unnecessary
luxury brand. We do really cool work that is just utterly pointless.

~~~
amiga_500
Read David Graeber: bullshit jobs

------
bloudermilk
I reached a point last year where working on frivolous tech products made me
guilty and depressed. As a result I've spent the past several months pivoting
my software consulting career to be focused on sustainability. My strategy so
far is to:

* Understand the science behind the causes and effects that make up the broad problem of "climate change" * Learn as much as I can about current policies, technologies, strategies, etc * Read well-regarded books on the above topics (e.g. I just finished Koomey's [Cold Cash, Cool Climate][0]) * Observe/follow leaders in the space * Meet people who know and care about protecting our environment * Find solutions where I can contribute my software expertise to the greatest effect

I'm just scratching the surface but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
There is a tremendous amount of work being done across major sectors like
energy, transportation, building, manufacturing, etc. that is both fulfilling
and well-funded.

I'd be delighted to connect with any other HN'ers who want to collaborate or
chat. Email in my profile

[0]: [https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Cash-Cool-Climate-Science-
Based/...](https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Cash-Cool-Climate-Science-
Based/dp/097060193X)

~~~
toper-centage
This year I felt exactly like you. I'm a freelancer for now, but can't bring
myself to apply to any of these hip tech companies. I wanted to work for
someone doing something that matters.

~~~
bloudermilk
Please reach out if you're still looking! I'm drumming up projects and will
have work for UX/UI designers, software engineers, data scientists,
copywriters, and more. My email is in my profile

------
paulgrimes1
CTO of Yume Food here ([https://yumefood.com.au](https://yumefood.com.au)), a
startup in Melbourne, Australia working to divert perfectly good surplus food
from going to landfill.

Our team identifies at-risk stock (packaging issues / overproduction / close
to code) and uses an ML-based engine to match the produce with suitable
buyers, and offers up to 80% discounts; stock is saved, buyers get discounts,
no ecological issues, everyone wins.

About to hit 1MM kilos of saved surplus stock, gaining some good buy-in from
big name food producers, which is really promising.

~~~
ryanmercer
>About to hit 1MM kilos of saved surplus stock,

That's impressive! You've got a good market there given the basically decades-
long drought too, I imagine the impact is far greater there than it would be
in many other countries.

------
corradio
I'm the founder of Tomorrow ([https://www.tmrow.com](https://www.tmrow.com)),
where we 3 years ago built
[https://www.electricitymap.org](https://www.electricitymap.org) (it's open
source).

We're seeking to build scalable digital solutions to climate change. Our
mission is to organise the world's carbon information, and make it universally
accessible. Therefore, we're now working on an app that automatically
calculates your personal carbon footprint, and gives you the means to act on
it.

A lot of our work is open source: see
[https://github.com/tmrowco](https://github.com/tmrowco)

I also wrote a pragmatic guide to climate change here:
[https://www.tmrow.com/climatechange](https://www.tmrow.com/climatechange)

Hope this can guide or even inspire some other folks out there.

------
patcon
Excuse this hot-take, but PSA for all: If you values environmental
sustainability, work on getting WOMEN INTO MORE LEADERSHIP POSITIONS.

If you're still with me after the capslock... :)

We've known since the Hofstede leadership study (commissioned by IBM) that
countries that skew toward feminine side of the masculity--femininity axes,
are more likely to have general populations that values environmental
sustainability, whereas countries that embody masculine leadership qualities
value economic growth much more highly. Just google "Hofstede environmental
sustainability femininity". It's been replicated in many studies. Some
examples:

[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327419590_The_Effec...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327419590_The_Effects_of_Hofstede's_Cultural_Dimensions_on_Pro-
Environmental_Behaviour_How_Culture_Influences_Environmentally_Conscious_Behaviour)

[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/csr.1329](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/csr.1329)

This is reproduced over and over. The key to environmental sustainability is
not an invention or a product, it's a reorienting of leadership away from the
risk-taking, growth-oriented masculine styles of leadership. That's not to say
men can't contribute to that work (the leadership style is not only accessible
to women) but that there's less teaching/re-education to do if we accept the
best approach to be GETTING WOMEN IN POWER.

Nothing else you build or work on will contribute to reorienting ourselves
away from this growth-mode death sentence (nor will it do it in such a
sustainable way) than SUPPORTING FEMALE LEADERSHIP in corporate and government
institutions. That's where the sustainable recalibration will take place.

I'm grateful for any consideration you might give this.

~~~
patientplatypus
Personally, I think this is gross. So I should be excluded from a leadership
position because I have a penis? Yuck.

~~~
krapp
Why did you apparently read "getting women into _more_ leadership positions"
and interpret it as "getting women into _all_ leadership positions?"

For that matter, why did you read an argument predicated on masculine versus
feminine leadership styles as they relate to environmentalism and social
empathy (which can be reasonably argued against) and reduce it to mere
exclusionism based on genitalia?

------
lettergram
Not really trying to fix anything, but I started bee keeping and have always
kept a garden.

Suddenly people mention how environmentally friendly in being, so I guess I
am.... really I just want to make mead and like honey

Bee keeping is fairly easy, but will cost an initial investment of maybe $500.
Technology includes wood you build a box out of, some wax guidance for the
combs, and some aluminum flashing for the roof. Oh, and bees, which they can
ship anywhere in the US via USPS

------
kisamoto
While not me personally my brother is doing his best. He has been studying
glaciers and their recession and surges to try and understand a bit more for
the (worsening) predictions. Part of this has been sample collecting and some
very interesting analysis of the results in R combined with GIS satellite
images that have been captured over time.

Unfortunately he has been struggling to find work other than research and so I
stepped in to try and help. I would be very interested to hear from anybody
who has found gainful employment working to save the environment, especially
if they are working in the IT/Geospatial sector.

------
tchaffee
Nothing geeky. Just the basics. First, educate yourself. For example, food
waste is a huge contributor to carbon output. So I don't ever throw out food
anymore. Anything remotely close to going off goes in the freezer for soup.
Since I buy groceries almost every day, I don't have much to keep track of in
the first place. I work remote. I walk and ride my bike everywhere and rarely
use a car. I avoid disposable plastic whenever possible. I'm intentionally not
a very "good" consumer. For example, I have about ten t-shirts and two dress
shirts. They last me years. That's my entire wardrobe for shirts. Cutting down
on air miles has been hard because I love travel, but I have done it. It also
doesn't hurt that I already live in a country that is over 80% renewable when
it comes to electricity. I also try to encourage others to take personal
responsibility. IMO, this isn't a technology problem. It's a cultural problem.
We already have everything we need to fix this. It's a matter of public will.

------
ForHackernews
I keep saying this and getting downvoted for it, but there isn't any magic
bullet technology fix. Even if commercial fusion were magically deployed at
scale today, there's still too much CO2 in the air, still too many petrol
vehicles on the road. The only way we stand a chance is by making sweeping,
society-wide changes.

The only thing you as an individual can do is try to pressure your leaders for
large scale government activity.

[https://rebellion.earth/](https://rebellion.earth/)

[https://www.sunrisemovement.org/](https://www.sunrisemovement.org/)

To answer your question "Are there any people who are actively working on
fixing the environment?"

Basically, to a rounding error, the answer is "No". You can see for yourself
here: [https://climateactiontracker.org/](https://climateactiontracker.org/)
National responses range from "critically insufficient" to merely
"insufficient".

~~~
chriswarbo
> there isn't any magic bullet technology fix

Of course. That doesn't mean technology (this forum's expertise) can't be used
as part of a solution though.

> The only way we stand a chance is by making sweeping, society-wide changes.

Sounds like something that we could attempt to throw various technologies at;
for instance, I'm sure many users of this site are experts in technology for
helping spread awareness (i.e. ad/marketing tech), enabling/improving
collaboration (e.g. consensus building for legislators), coordination (e.g.
for activists), etc.

> The only thing you as an individual can do is try to pressure your leaders
> for large scale government activity

If OP was asking what they, as some random Internet user, could do, then
_perhaps_ your pessimism would be right. I don't think that's too relevant for
what OP is _actually_ asking though, which is what's being done by HN users (a
large number of technical experts, wielding disproportionately more power than
the average citizen due to expertise in, and stewardship of, technologies with
large amplifying effects, like the Web, social media, etc.)

~~~
ForHackernews
> what's being done by HN users

Based on my personal experience on this forum, the primary thing HN users are
doing about the climate crisis is speculating about how scifi technologies
might save us, and using that as an excuse to avoid getting involved in the
messy business of mass politics.

There's a strong libertarian and techno-utopian streak here that doesn't take
kindly to being told that they're not going to save the world with a webapp,
and we need major government intervention.

(And now I've been rate-limited so I won't be able to reply any more)

------
elil17
I work on making a specific piece of HVAC equipment/industrial cooling
equipment more energy efficient by creating a new control algorithm. Overall,
HVAC systems represent about 4% of US power consumption and their share is
rising, but most are controlled in highly inefficient ways. My guess
(genuinely just a guess from the limited slice of HVAC data I’ve seen) is that
you could improve the efficiency of these systems by 25% without changing any
of the hardware.

I think we need more people working on small, boring fixes to reduce the
amount of resources we use as a society.

~~~
ryanmercer
> HVAC systems represent about 4% of US power consumption and their share is
> rising,

And here is a real issue. We use a lot of electricity for air conditioning.
Temperatures are rising which means more air conditioning. More air
conditioning means more power, which means more fossil fuels. More fossil
fuels means more warming.

 _sigh_.

We could save a fortune just by being smarter about new construction, but
alas, cookie-cutter home builders and apartment companies just want the
cheapest thing they can sell/rent.

My bedroom closet at my apartment isn't even insulated, in the winter it gets
as low as about 40F and Tuesday with it 92F outside my closet was 86F so
opening it twice a day dumps a bunch of heat/cold into my room. The on-suite
bathroom on the same wall is somewhat insulated but not as much as the other
rooms, they skimped on 2-3 widths of insulation to save 20-30$ per corner of
each building because, you know, they don't pay the electric bill.

~~~
elil17
>Temperatures are rising which means more air conditioning. More air
conditioning means more power, which means more fossil fuels.

There’s three opportunities to disrupt the problem. Reduce AC use. Reduce how
much power AC uses. Reduce how much fossil fuel power generation uses.

------
justsomeguy3591
Not nearly enough.

Short story: helped found a startup in the political/finance space. Got burnt
out, tired, and depressed building software to help make bigger banks bigger
while they seem like they are only benefiting from running the environment
into the ground.

So I've put in my notice. Re-enrolled in school to buy myself time, a network,
and a more supportive environment for putting resources into bigger and more
pressing problems. What that looks like- I'm not sure yet. There have been
some interesting projects and groups posted here which I've been looking
through. Long term plan is to end up back on the west coast within commuting
distance to SF.

If anyone has any ideas - do share! (email in profile) Experienced in Python
backend development, data scraping, parsing. Interested in simulations and
models, IoT, mathematics, physics, and still have a bit of a mechatronics
background from school. Love figuring things out and learning, especially
tough, real problems.

I just want to be able to look back and say, at least I tried.

------
monocasa
It's increasingly likely that near term societal collapse is inevitable.
[https://jembendell.com/2018/07/26/the-study-on-collapse-
they...](https://jembendell.com/2018/07/26/the-study-on-collapse-they-thought-
you-should-not-read-yet/)

So meet your neighbors, build local relationships, and decentralize before
you're forced to while you can still specify the terms of that
decentralization. Check out the urban agriculture movement. That came out of
rust belt cities shutting down services and distribution. How people in cities
like Detroit survived that provides a bit of a blueprint.

------
sjmulder
I've been involved with Extinction Rebellion, helping to organise some small
(legal!) demonstrations.

Some people I was once friendly with now consider me an ecoterrorist. I have
been tailed by secret police. I've been unofficially cautioned by an employer
who now seem to be taking steps to fire me.

Our future can go find itself another champion.

------
oli-hall
I quit my tech job at the end of last year, and have been working since then
to find the most impactful ways that I can combat climate change.

I'm currently looking into energy storage, particularly batteries, and how to
effectively create grid-scale storage to improve the electrical grid and
facilitate the uptake of renewable energy.

In the mean time, I started
[https://www.forgethefuture.com/](https://www.forgethefuture.com/) to compile
resources for others, and I run a newsletter off the back of that to keep
people up to date with policy, activism and technical changes in the space
([https://forgethefuture.substack.com/](https://forgethefuture.substack.com/)
if you want to sample it :)). I want to make it easier for people to
understand where the biggest problem areas are and how they can be tackled.
I'm also a part of
[https://techimpactmakers.com/](https://techimpactmakers.com/) \- a community
which brings together technologists concerned about the environment.

As others have said, we have almost all of the technological tools to fix this
problem, but government policy moves to slowly to rely on. We need a
combination of physical solutions (think the Tesla of energy/agriculture/etc -
make a solution that's better than the competition _and_ greener) and activism
- showing governments that we care.

------
tossAfterUsing
In my personal life, i was vegetarian for more than a decade, i
recycle/garden/ride a bike/never buy new cars/prefer previously owned
equivalents to new purchases for all products/turn off lights, computers,
monitors, speakers, amps, etc.../avoid using air-con/never buy leather/capture
and release houseflies & spiders/advocate among my associates to live as
sustainably as they can.

My first engineering job was for SolarCity... it was so great!

Until i realized it was just scheme for tranching solar incentives from the
gov't into financial devices for JPMC & CO to buy, supporting the credit cycle
for the growing business... then i quit, and moved out of SF.

Next was software for a mmj operation... turning raw flower into dabs/wax/etc.
If anybody ever asks you, Dabs are drugs... m'kay.

Then I worked to build a product that captures browsing information to creates
shadow-profiles of sovereign wealth fund managers, to target them for
investment advisories.

Today, I'm working to make off-shore oil&gas field development-planning a more
efficient process (it's incredibly old-school, currently). That means meetings
with the biggest "climate destroying" companies on the planet, and chatting
seriously about how to frack better.

All in all, and really ironically, it feels like this current role is the most
environmentally (earthship environment, social/cultural environment)
responsible job I've ever had.

------
tyleo
As a developer I’d love to know how I could use my skills to help the
environment. I feel like I remember seeing some topics on HN discussing this
very thing but I can’t find any with a simple search.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

~~~
bloudermilk
Broadly speaking, I think there are two kinds of companies you want to look
for:

* Those which directly aim to reduce or sequester emissions

* Those which could deploy technologies to lower their emissions and save money

You can find examples of these in literally every sector. This is a blessing
because it means there is a ton of demand. It's also a curse since it can be
hard to pick a niche if you don't happen to have some kind of specialization
(e.g. transportation or agriculture).

I'm actively looking for clients that fit both of those categories. I'd be
happy to chat about collaborating or any of this if you reach out via email
(see profile).

------
emckay
I quit my job last month to work full time on (what I think is) an under-
explored area of climate change: how institutional investors block shareholder
proposals calling for firms to adopt more climate-friendly policies.

I have just published the first bit of research with data on how 500+ funds
from the big 3 fund managers voted on climate change-related proposals in
2018: [https://voting.greengovernance.org](https://voting.greengovernance.org)
. Later this year, I'm planning to launch a "governance-first" ETF that gives
investors the same exposure as other funds but is much more aggressive in
fighting climate change.

I'd love any feedback! Feel free to email me at <hn-
username>@greengovernance.org

------
bristleworm
It's not much, but we specifically selected insect-friendly plants when
planning our garden. I'm creating an app to help others do the same.

~~~
ptah
that sounds interesting. do you have any links ?

~~~
bristleworm
this website helped a lot: [https://www.buglife.org.uk/activities-for-
you/wildlife-garde...](https://www.buglife.org.uk/activities-for-you/wildlife-
gardening)

------
torte
I am a Software Engineer at Wattcost
([https://www.wattcost.com/](https://www.wattcost.com/)), which creates a
device and platform to read your energy consumption (even with older meters)
and act on it. Eventually the platform is supposed to help you save energy in
your home, which indirectly helps "fighting" climate change.

That being said, I do not believe that any single person or single company has
the power to change things drastically into any direction. It has to be a
joint effort of anyone or any organization on that planet. I am not seeing
this actually happening (and often even see the opposite), so personally my
outlook is rather grim as well.

------
gamerDude
I'm currently building a prototype house that runs on renewable energy, grows
its own food, and at small scales should pay their own mortgage.

All in all the house is sustainable, but it also needs to provide something
that makes it a must have over a normal house. In the end I think we need to
work on both ends for sustainable technology. One end of educating people that
we need to be better. And on the other making things that use sustainable
technology, but are also better than competing products on more than just
being sustainable.

Note: The house design wasn't conceived for sustainability, but as a basic
income achieved through tech instead of taxation. Sustainability was an
important aspect to make that possible.

------
algui91
My Wife and I are trying to follow the recommendation mentioned in
[https://www.ourplanet.com/en/](https://www.ourplanet.com/en/) and
[http://wwf.panda.org/our_work/projects/our_planet_netflix_ww...](http://wwf.panda.org/our_work/projects/our_planet_netflix_wwf_nature_documentary/what_can_i_do/)

Also, we would love to get involved in a more direct way, for example with our
work (Both of us are Data Scientist and Software Developers).

------
justplay
I live in small town and people are so use to plastic that they take plastic
for every silly things. I believe awareness is best thing instead of some tech
thing how we can solve environmental problem.

~~~
abyssin
Plastic waste looks like a very small problem compared to CO2 emissions.
Cutting CO2 emissions is much harder than acting on plastic waste, and we no
longer have time for small actions. We need to radically lower our consumption
of goods of any kind.

------
celicaraptor
As a first year CS student,i created
[https://recyclair.eu.org/](https://recyclair.eu.org/) It's a website to find
the nearest garbage or recycling bin so you never have the excuse to throw it
on the ground.It's completely open source
[https://github.com/recyclerapp/recyclair](https://github.com/recyclerapp/recyclair)
. It currently relies on community contribution so any help is appreciated.

------
samvher
I work for an organization that helps smallholder farmers farm more
effectively and sustainably through digital advisory (precisionag.org). Things
we try to do are change pesticide behavior (recommend safer pesticides, get
people to use only when necessary and in safe amounts), change fertilizer
behavior (help them allocate money effectively for replenishing the right
nutrients), decrease soil depletion and erosion (adjust tilling practices,
increase crop rotation, that sort of thing).

The hope is of course that this results in better yields with less damage, but
the Jevons paradox has already been mentioned and it's hard to say what the
effect will be in the long run.

Personally I've just decreased material and meat consumption very
significantly, and I try to be careful with flying (but need to do so
occasionally for my work).

I'm not too hopeful, the main economic systems are fully based on constantly
increasing production (which mostly has a physical basis) and effective action
would require significant international collaboration (the world does not seem
to be getting more united). We will see - maybe once things really start going
wrong and we get into crisis mode effective action suddenly becomes possible.

------
floki999
I’ve been involved in the trading of weather and catastrophe risk (I.e.
trading instruments such as bonds or derivatives where the payout is linked to
weather parameters, or insurance losses caused by natural hazards such as
hurricanes/earthquakes). In my experience, it has become clear that there is a
lot of muddled thinking about climate predictions, scenarios and the
significance of single extreme events.

Also, while there is a lot of public weather and climate data out there, there
are a lot of data quality or provenance issues which make it hard for
professionals, let alone the general public, to confidently make use of it and
trust what it says. Also, the general lack of public understanding allows non-
experts to take data and generate erroneous conclusions.

I try as much as possible to educate and communicate around these issues and
help clients have more confidence in data.

Another are where there is a lot of muddled thinking is with respect to the
ESG factors which are increasingly used by investors to assess Environmental,
Social and Governance issues. There are a lot of ESG data vendors who
essentially peddle meaningless metrics which add to the confusion.

------
Flip-per
I'm working as software developer at the energy/climate department of a
research institute[1]. It's a think-tank that also consults policy makers. The
scientists here do lots of modeling, trying to predict possible outcomes in
order to create awareness and provide information about effects and
alternatives.

[1] [http://www.iiasa.ac.at/](http://www.iiasa.ac.at/)

------
pojzon
Like I say we have to force law makers hard to punish polluting companies to
the extreme where its unprofitable to pollute. Pretty much whole coal&oil
industry would have to be nuked, thats why its SO HARD to do anything about
it. Corporations lobby politics we choose to harm us - citizens.

Next 10 years will be a huge battle between little ppl and corporations.
Because single person actions do not matter more than 1%

~~~
tim333
The UK's carbon taxes are doing quite well and don't seem to have caused too
much upset in spite of the coal industry being nuked
([https://qz.com/1192753/a-carbon-tax-killed-coal-in-the-uk-
na...](https://qz.com/1192753/a-carbon-tax-killed-coal-in-the-uk-natural-gas-
is-next/))

Energy company execs obviously don't want to go bust but are probably happy
building solar farms rather than oil wells if that's what pays best.

------
bilifuduo
IMO the highest leverage thing to do right now to fix the environment is
connecting the most talented people with careers at organizations directly
tackling parts of the environmental crisis. Individual efforts can help, but
all major advancements in human history have come through a coordinated group
of people advancing a common cause. In our day and age, these are the
corporations and nonprofits.

Similarly, the effectiveness of volunteering is also limited because of how
hard it is to do work for free for a long period of time. The moment something
becomes hard is the moment an effort starts getting valuable, and also the
moment when volunteers start dropping.

Given all this, I'm currently working on Dolphin
([https://www.splashwithdolphin.com/](https://www.splashwithdolphin.com/)),
which connects people with careers at high-impact companies tackling problems
they care about. Climate change is #1 on the list of pressing issues. Happy to
chat more about this at george@splashwithdolphin.com.

------
dserban
I have great admiration for Boyan's Ocean Cleanup project.

I think more people should be aware of it.

It's about cleaning up the plastic soup in our oceans' garbage patches.

[https://theoceancleanup.com/](https://theoceancleanup.com/)

I volunteered my help to the project, but they don't have a need for software
engineers.

~~~
pietjepuk88
I have posted this before, but please do not think this will ever work. The
thing will fall apart (again) as soon as it is exposed to anything but a calm
sea. It definitely brought attention to the issue, but that's about all the
good it did.

I don't blame anyone for having the idea of making something like this, but I
do Boyan and his team for seeing it through to implementation when all
preliminary and scale model tests showed clearly that they would fail. Talk
about a waste of money and bright minds...

------
fillskills
We are making a pass to access lush private backyard gardens for therapy,
yoga, meditation etc. Some of our most interesting customers are VAs, elderly
folks, stressed out engineers etc. The underlying goal is to help gardeners
earn money that they put into building more lush gardens thus storing carbon
into top soil.

------
abulaatikko
I'm trying to promote "zero carbon life" and educate people that co2 taxes and
especially negative taxes (aka allowances) are our solution to neutralize the
bad effects of living (not just co2 but other harmful things too). Then free
market and technological progress will fix things automatically. Negative tax
creates incentive for companies to clean environment.

We just need to get people to understand this to vote politicians who will
implement the taxes and not waste time to talk about different life styles and
what is socially ok (pets are) and what is not (plastic straws are not). I've
written a longer essay about the idea: [https://palsta.pulu.org/en/73-zero-
carbon-life](https://palsta.pulu.org/en/73-zero-carbon-life)

------
billconan
I want to work on robotic garbage recycling, eco friendly cooling technology.
But I also need to make a living :(

~~~
bad_login
Robotics solutions targeting recycling
[https://zenrobotics.com/](https://zenrobotics.com/)

------
surfgreen_dev
We started a web development agency two months ago that focusses on
sustainable and green web development. It's called surfgreen.dev -
[https://www.surfgreen.dev/en](https://www.surfgreen.dev/en)

We are based in Bavaria, Germany, and focus on sustainable frontend
technologies for websites and webapps as well as on green cloud computing.

Right now we are working on a web application that's analysing websites
focused on performance and hosting topics. This web app generates a
sustainability scoring based on several factors and will be deployed this
month.

So if anyone is interested to learn more about sustainable websites, green web
development, etc. feel free to contact us via our homepage. We are also happy
to help customers to make their websites sustainable and green.

------
nwnomad
I work with food and beverage companies to reduce GHG emissions from food
production in their supply chains through modeling/data analysis of farming
systems and software development. Related to this, I'm working on research to
understand soil variability that can drastically impact the measurement of
soil carbon sequestration.

Also considering starting up a local grains and storage vegetable farm to
reduce food miles (while acknowledging that it isn't always more efficient).

On a personal note, I've switched back to being a vegetarian (with occasional
fish), and am trying to switch to carting my young daughter around town on an
ebike instead of a heavy car.

I haven't done much politically but think it's probably far past time to dive
in since much of the changes will need to be made by legislation.

------
marak830
As I am a teacher, I try to form a project course (3 month course with 12
month rotation) around showing students about carbon footprint for food
transport, and effective means of learning about locally grown and produced
foods that can be used.

Best I have been able to figure from my job point atm.

------
drunkenmonk
Working on design of resilient local supply chain of fresh food as part of a
fortune 10 company professionally.

Personally, shopping only as needed basis and no gas cars in the household.

Future to perfect greenhouse farming, designing and retro fitting houses which
are as efficient as humanely comfortable.

------
MrsPeaches
I believe that the next big innovation in energy will come out of Africa.

There are over 600 million people without electricity in sub-Saharan Africa
and bringing them online is one of the biggest challenges facing the world
(c.f. SDG 7).

At the same time there are some amazing innovations coming out of Africa with
regards to decentralised electricity.

My mission is to get more people involved in innovation in the energy space in
Africa.

You can see more here:
[https://localelectricity.org/](https://localelectricity.org/)

We are also running a crowdfunding campaign which you can see here:
[https://startsomegood.com/localelectricity/](https://startsomegood.com/localelectricity/)

~~~
tim333
In the short term I'm sure they will install a lot of Chinese solar panels.
But longer term it would be cool to build one or more massive solar plants in
the Sahara to supply Europe and nearby countries via high voltage cables. You
might also be able to re green the land in the shade under them. Just covering
half of Niger with panels could potentially power the world.

------
todd8
I donated land to Nature Conservancy.

------
cloudwalking
Check out what Sam Rosen is doing with drinking water and trying to reduce
single-use plastics.
[https://www.google.com/amp/s/techcrunch.com/2018/10/26/tap-a...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/techcrunch.com/2018/10/26/tap-
a-new-startup-from-sam-rosen-wants-to-be-the-google-of-drinking-water/amp/)

~~~
majewsky
AMP-free link: [https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/26/tap-a-new-startup-from-
sam...](https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/26/tap-a-new-startup-from-sam-rosen-
wants-to-be-the-google-of-drinking-water/)

------
TYPE_FASTER
Lots of companies here are working on solving problems related to the
environment: [https://www.greentownlabs.com](https://www.greentownlabs.com). I
sat there for about six months while working at a startup, it was great to see
how many people were really committed to working on hard problems in the
environmental/green tech space.

------
LoSboccacc
secondary issue but dad was a environmental engineer at some drilling
locations, managing impact and cleanups. guess what job got cut immediately at
the beginning of the last decadecrisis? personal action is fine and dandy, but
we need to make expensive for company to pollute so one doesn't have to choose
between helping the environment and having a family.

------
xk3
I'm working on this issue but from an entirely different angle. You can read
about my work here: [https://kotobago.substack.com/p/developing-a-
sense](https://kotobago.substack.com/p/developing-a-sense)

------
nixpulvis
I personally don't do much, but my dad's company does. I'll just leave a link
here, since I think it's pretty cool software (obviously I'm biased).

[https://www.homerenergy.com/](https://www.homerenergy.com/)

------
throwaway8879
I'm not doing anything directly through work or activism, but I have made a
decision to not have children(albeit for other reasons), as have my siblings.
I guess that will have more of a long-term impact than recycling, going vegan
or getting off of fossil fuel.

~~~
justplay
huh? No children because you want to save environment, sorry to be cynical.

~~~
patientplatypus
I also have made the same decision for the same reasons. There are too many of
us.

~~~
justplay
please enlighten me!

~~~
diggan
Now I'm neither of the parents (comment parents) here, but I'm myself torn on
the issue.

On one hand, having children will contribute to the overall higher
consumption, meaning the environment eventually will suffer from the increase
in population.

On the other hand, having children and raising them as good as you can, can
offset the impact (or even have a better impact on climate change as a whole,
even though the increase of consumption) other people have on the environment,
if you "train" your child(s) to care for the environment.

------
jvatic
I'd really like to find paid work fixing the environment. So far all I've done
is reduce the harm I'm doing by adopting a vegan and [mostly] zero-waste
lifestyle, and minimizing the amount of other polluting activities I engage
in.

------
mrfusion
I’m letting my back lawn grow wild. I still mow a few times a year but it’s
mostly now wild flowers and strange looking plants. (Kind I’d like Pandora)

I’m seeing tons of bees and butterflies and my fruit trees seem extra healthy
and fertile.

------
Ivory76
Donating to Cool Earth:
[https://www.coolearth.org/](https://www.coolearth.org/)

So far, 2,800 trees saved, equivalent to taking 595 cars off the road for a
year.

------
lcall
I am in that I try to (within reason) minimize waste, pollution, energy
consumption, meat use, etc: all for the Golden Rule and a clear conscience.
And I am all for reducing pollution via laws as it makes the best sense using
an open process and honesty. And I am active in an organization that goes to
great lengths to try to help people in need, whether due to climate change or
otherwise.

But having said that, I don't think climate change is a problem humanity is
currently competent to solve, nor our biggest problem. I wrote more, here (a
lightweight, hopefully skimmable, no-JS/no-ads site):

[http://lukecall.net/e-9223372036854581820.html](http://lukecall.net/e-9223372036854581820.html)

------
kodz4
> every day there is a new piece of bad news

The better question is who has training to deal with problems they don't know
how to solve being thrown at them everyday?

------
bigato
I hear crickets sounds

But soon we may not have that privilege

~~~
bristleworm
It's crazy. A few weeks ago we noticed many of our outdoor plants were
suffering from aphids. Usually ladybugs and their larvae take care of this.
It's the middle of summer now and I have yet to see a ladybug.

~~~
childintime
Or skimmers.

------
tim333
I'm trying to think of ways to use web tech to improve externality pricing.
Not got very far yet but anyway...

------
rohan1024
Can we start Reddit community for this?

~~~
bristleworm
Good idea. There might already be one but I don't know one. Any good name
ideas? I'd be happy to help set up, moderate, whatever, but I'm not good at
catchy names :)

~~~
fillskills
Please post here if you do start one or find an active community. I have been
thinking of this for a while. Would be happy to join

~~~
bristleworm
I'll do that

------
nickserv
I gave up my car for over a year now (although a job change is msybe putting
this in jeopardy).

We barely buy any meat, keep it for special occasions mainly.

We buy as many local fruits and vegetables as possible.

I participate in organized tree plantings and have planted some on my own.

I won't have more than two kids (got sterilized), although not just for the
environment.

... and it's not nearly enough.

I would want to work in something truly helpful for our species rather than
making more money for the capitalists but it's tough with a family to support.

------
titojankowski
Direct air capture to make consumer carbon products.

------
Gnarl
Hi! great question. Thanks for asking.

I'm actively working to fix the environment by getting people to reduce their
use of wireless tech. and lobbying Government to _drastically_ lower the
permitted microwave radiation exposure guidelines.

How so, you may ask - since creating an "app" and using tech is the default
way to "disrupt" or "fix" something cultural/societal today.

No offence meant to app creators. I'm a software guy myself. The tech is
exiting and developing is fun, but that invisible, odor-free "something" the
wireless tech is constantly emitting to facilitate connectivity, is an
environmental toxin. Yes, I'm taking about the RF radiation which is a slow
acting poison.

It negatively impacts cells, insects, plants, animals & humans.

This isn't an opinion any longer. The science on this is robust. It would be
wise to heed the warnings of a veteran MD and internal medicine professor who
gave a crash-course in biological effects of RF radiation to a Michigan
committee: [https://youtu.be/1Qt5B39LB7c](https://youtu.be/1Qt5B39LB7c) If you
watch the 5 min. clip, keep in mind that its not just one single professor's
statement - its a compression of decades of peer-reviewed and published
research that's being presented.

Physicists and engineers tend to disagree on a basis of simple energy
absorbtion/heating mechanics, but that is irrelevant to the possibility of
harmful biological effects given how science now clearly shows biological
damage at exposure levels _far_ below heating threshold. The "thermal-only"
paradigm with non-ionizing radiofrequency radiation is dead, although Big
Wireless' entire business hinges on it being valid still. It isn't. Sound
advice is to begin divesting in RF wireless industry and offshoots because its
going down. Not tomorrow, but soon enough.

Even the risk-ready insurance industry jumped ship years ago. Look up
"exclusion 32 electromagnetic fields". They've seen the future and they don't
want to pay out for the "next asbestos". Big Wireless' is on its own when the
lawsuits are won.

As natural background radiation, the frequency bands usurped by wireless
telecoms were virtually silent during evolution. Now the man-made background
levels are _extreme_ in comparison and the effects are showing broadly as
mostly neurological problems in human populations, decline in insect biomass,
wild animals avoiding areas with transmitters, tree/foliage damage near
transmitters etc.

As an interesting development, recently in Denmark, a Lawyer concluded, based
on existing science & reports, that 5G rollout will most likely damage the
natural environment and contravene a number of European natural protection
conventions. See more here: [https://helbredssikker-
telekommunikation.dk/nyheder/LegalOpi...](https://helbredssikker-
telekommunikation.dk/nyheder/LegalOpinion5G)

We need another kind of wireless. Not RF/microwave based. Its possible, I'm
sure.

Thank you for your attention.

~~~
throwaway10928
Regarding 5G in Denmark, perhaps it is worth mentioning that the claimed fear
has been linked to what is considered to be disinformation spread by Russian
state-sponsored media: [https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/5g-modstandere-
spreder-rus...](https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/5g-modstandere-spreder-
russisk-misinformation-i-danmark-0)

~~~
Gnarl
For health concerns about 5G to be just "Russian disinformation" then Putin
would have had to secretly corrupt respected scientific journals like Nature,
The Lancet, Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine etc. for decades.

Why? Because Putin would at least need to fake the collective 2000+
publications on biological hazards from RF from the 240+ international
scientists & medical doctors who have launched appeals against 5G. See:
[http://www.5gappeal.eu](http://www.5gappeal.eu) and
[https://www.5gspaceappeal.org](https://www.5gspaceappeal.org)

(btw: throwaway10928's profile is as old as its above post (1 hr.) so
apparently created for the sole purpose of misleading HN readers).

~~~
throwaway10928
You may be interested in reading this:
[https://eufactcheck.eu/factcheck/mostly-
false-10000-scientif...](https://eufactcheck.eu/factcheck/mostly-
false-10000-scientific-research-files-call-upon-delaying-the-implementation-
of-5g-technology/)

~~~
Gnarl
Are you serious?? Bringing up some random statement from a _politician_ about
science. Completely irrelevant.

~~~
throwaway10928
If you read the content you will find that it is based on the same sources
that you linked to yourself.

------
drummyfish
I recently went vegetarian. I also strictly reject capitalism, even to the
point of not being able to make a living.

~~~
Gnarl
I wouldn't say you need to reject capitalism, just the form of _catastrophy
captalism_ that has become so popular.

~~~
drummyfish
I am an anarchist, so I do oppose any form of capitalism. Why? This beautiful
text gives all the answers :)

[http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/index.html](http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/index.html)

------
throwaway34583
The environment is what it is, you cannot fix it.

------
oleiade
Progress, technology and capitalism brought us here, you'd have to be
dillusional to believe it will save us. Solutions are political, diplomatic
and moral.

~~~
thinkingemote
Technology takes civilisation backwards? It's certainly a widely held idea,
also held by extremists like Green Anarchists for example (and the Unabomber).
If you look at it from a small enough lense there is truth there but if you
widen your view you can see that someone's delusions also have truths. The
reality is more messy than we like to think about.

------
ryanmercer
I'm not but i recognize it to be a problem, sadly it seems those with money
seem to want to throw it at pursuing on massive-scale geoengineering and/or
pursuing exotic carbon sequestration methods that may or may not already
exist. A good example of this being YC with this page
[http://carbon.ycombinator.com/](http://carbon.ycombinator.com/)

I really wish I could get one of these people to liten to me. I'm not a CS
type, I'm not an ivy league degree holder (or a degree holder at all), I
didn't sell my first company for eleventy-seven mibillion dollars, so I'm not
welcome at the table.

I wish I could get one of these individuals, or several of them, or even a
company, to spin off a non-profit to start hardcore investigating what is
going on, what the immediate issues are, what the projected issues are 10-20
years out, and what we need to start doing. if OpenAI can get 1 billion
dollars in pledges to build not-so-mean sky net, can we get 10 million, 100
million, pledged to you know... saving the flippin' planet?!

Seriously. Sama, throw me at this.

Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Dustin Moskovitz, Jan
Koum, Travis Kalanick, Jack Dorsey, Google, Laurene Powell Jobs, Jeff Bezos,
Elon Musk, Steve Ballmer, Reid Hoffman, Facebook, Google, Uber, Airbnb,
Stripe, Dropbox, Coinbase, Palantir, WeWork... do you want to keep your
customers, your gardeners, your drivers, your personal chefs, your dog walker,
do you want to see your bloodline continue with grandchildren or great
grandchildren? Then wake up, we've got to do something, we're listing to port
and if we don't act fast it'll be 'all hands, abandon ship!'

Let's get out there and talk to farmers, climatologists, scientists,
researchers, grad students, material scientists, oil/solar/wind/geothermal
engineers, agricultural science people. I'll go spend a year, two years, going
from university to university-company to company-skype call to skype call,
talking to as many of these people as possible so we can come up with a solid
look at the issue and then start working on a battle plan.

>It seems like if we don't do anything then in ten or twenty years (my
lifetime!) there will be a "crunch" where something truly horrific may happen.

Personally I feel that if we aren't at least countering the greenhouse gasses
we are emitting annually 100%, then we will be up the creek without a paddle
and will need to immediately start to focus our efforts on creating
'blueprints' for rebuilding civilization from scratch as a backup (maybe gold
plated titanium etched sheets on how to build basic machines and general
engineering/physics/etc information in caches around the world) and throw
everything we've got into long-term energy and indoor growing technology. I
don't think humanity will go extinct but I think if we haven't at least ceased
adding more greenhouses gasses 5-10 years from now then we probably will not
be able to gain control of it before it spirals (thawing marshes/permafrost
releasing methane pockets etc) and we will then need to just focus on ensuring
that over the coming decades, or even century, that some record exists for our
children or even great grand children to rebuild in the event we collectively
lose the know-how to do a lot that we've accomplished because we were too busy
trying to survive radical changes to weather and massive food shortages.

\---

Even if a company made viable/affordable cold fusion TODAY it would take
decades to replace all of the current power plants assuming zero increase in
demand as there are over 60,000 power plants in the world and just since the
year 2000 the world has more than DOUBLED the power generation from coal
plants (China alone is building some 300 coal plants around the world as
investments and receives something along the liens of 70% of their power from
coal). The concrete alone to build all of those facilities would release an
insane amount of CO2.

China is also adding millions of new drivers to the roads annually, as well as
building a massive amount of roads/highways/bridges all across the country so
either fossil fuel use will continue to rise or there will be millions and
millions of EVs demanding even more power generation.

\---

As I've spoken to Silicon Valley types with the means to actually fund looking
into this sort of stuff over the past year or so, including consulting on it
for compensation, I'm just shocked at how naively optimistic some of them are
and worse, how some just refuse to acknowledge it as a problem. Attitudes like
"don't worry, we will figure it out because we have to". Yeah, sorry, no,
that's not always the case... I hate hate hate how VC/Startup culture is like
"we can do anything, promise, we got this, we can code so relax we'll figure
it out, stop being pessimistic and go away".

It's easy to sit in San Francisco where weather varies wildly between blocks
anyway due to microclimates but, hi, hello, I live in central Indiana... you
can normally start harvesting corn next week here however due to the abnormal
rains we've had the past 2 months there is corn in fields out there that's
knee high because it couldn't be planted. I drove by so many fields two
weekends ago on a 120ish mile trip to northern Indiana that had standing water
in them and still hadn't been planted. About a mile from my apartment there
exists a new pond, it isn't actually a pond but it is a field that has now had
standing water in it for a month due to far more rain than normal.

This isn't just in central Indiana either, this is a large part of the
country. Higher than normal rains are going to seriously impact crop yields
this year, while in Australia they produced roughly 20% less grains than
normal last year because of their drought being worse than normal. Anchorage
might see 90F this week per a news article I saw this morning which will be a
record in recorded history. France has at least one nuclear power plant that
might need to go offline due to running out of cooling due to the heat. There
are micro plastics in the air now, 'raining' down hundreds of miles from any
known source.

But hey, it's ok, Silicon Valley's brightest coders are working on it
_headdesk_

Come on, let's do something about this. I don't have the means, I have the
drive though. Those that have means, wake up, come on, throw money at this!
Think of yourselves as the aristocracy on the titanic, did all that wealth do
them any good as the ship went down?

If someone with the financial means legitimately wants to attempt to take a
stab at this I will walk away from my job and throw myself 100% at it. Let's
start by talking to as many experts in as many fields as possible.
Farmers/scientists/engineers/etc, let's compile all of the data we can and we
can even make a series of video interviews with those that are already feeling
the impact of our actions as a species and start getting that content out
there, raise more and more awareness. A handful of people working on cold
fusion, or C4 rice, or trying to geonegineer the planet aren't going to do a
damn bit of good unless we get a majority of the population to recognize, and
admit, that there is something happening and that we need to stop it fast.
Let's get out there and get started.

Some of the people I mentioned way above have individually donated more than a
billion dollars to other types of causes... look I get that sanitation for
remote villages is needed, that gender diversity in the workplace is, that
immigration reform is a good thing, but what is the point of all of it if
billions of people die from thirst/famine/hurricanes/storms in the next
century?!?!

------
martincollignon
Alright, I got criticized for spamming on other climate change posts for copy-
pasting links, so here's what I'm doing.

My background is growth/marketing, having worked at startups, Uber and Google.
I'm quitting Google end of summer to work on climate change full-time, but
right now I'm helping out 2 tech communities [1][2] and one startup working
with open-source projects, calculating people's CO2 emissions in a privacy-by-
design manner[3].

After the summer, I hope to join that startup full-time (if they want me ;-) )
and help also in politics with the Citizen's Climate Lobby[4] and their effort
to pass a Carbon Fee and Dividend legislation globally.

Even if you don't work full-time on it, there are plenty of ways you can help.

[1][https://climateaction.tech/](https://climateaction.tech/)

[2][https://techimpactmakers.com/](https://techimpactmakers.com/)

[3][https://www.tmrow.com](https://www.tmrow.com)

[4][https://citizensclimatelobby.org/](https://citizensclimatelobby.org/)

~~~
jsingleton
Impact Makers are running a hackathon
([https://fixathon.io/](https://fixathon.io/)). Info deck if you want to
sponsor: [http://bit.ly/fixathon-sponsor](http://bit.ly/fixathon-sponsor)

