
What can a technologist do about climate change? (2015) - eyrarric
http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/
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evanlivingston
While I think there's a lot of interesting stuff in this essay, I can't help
but notice everything in the article _requires making new things_.

I often wonder how much of climate change is driven by our need for new
things, to consume.

I don't want to downplay the need for _science_ in avoid climate disaster and
I'm by no means a primitivist. but, and please inform me because I don't
actually know:

How much could we curb climate change if _no one_

\- produced and purchased a cell phone for a year

\- manufactured a laptop for a year

\- manufactured and launched rockets for a year

\- manufactured an automobile for a year

\- bought a smart watch

\- bought a new sound system

\- drove to work where possible

\- went snowmobiling

\- mowed their lawn

\- bought new skis

\- bought a brand new bike

\- flew across the country for a meeting

and so on.

I know a lot of stuff would simply halt, but haven't we seen coordinated
national efforts on similar scales during war-time? I'm not proposing this as
a solution, but more as a thought experiment and I recognize as with any
thought experiment there are problems with it. But the underlying questions
remains: What can we do _today_ if we got serious about the problem?

~~~
Pulcinella
Bret does mention this at the top of the article.

 _This is aimed at people in the tech industry, and is more about what you can
do with your career than at a hackathon. I’m not going to discuss policy and
regulation, although they’re no less important than technological innovation.
A good way to think about it, via Saul Griffith, is that it’s the role of
technologists to create options for policy-makers._

It’s about technological options rather than policy or social ones. In regards
to wartime type effort, there is that quote at the top of the article from
Saul Griffith:

 _People say “this is a Manhattan Project, this an Apollo Project”. Sorry,
those are science projects. Fusion is a Manhattan Project or an Apollo
Project... The rest of this is more like retooling for World War II, except
with everyone playing on the same team._

I do agree though. Being serious about climate change is much more “war” scale
than “Apollo” or “Tesla” scale.

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8bitsrule
The author is certainly right that investing in a cinder makes no sense.

Getting companies/countries to let go of the philosophy of perpetual growth
seems like a worthwhile goal. Seriously: what's 'enough'?

Such growth has been driven by energy that needs to be diverted to
conservation/stabilization. Had we started a massive energy transformation
plan a decade ago, we'd be halfway there. Instead the clouds on the far
horizon draw nearer.

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xapata
I periodically experience an existential crisis -- wondering why the hell I'm
not spending all my time trying to alleviate climate change.

~~~
qplex
Hey, me too.

Sadly of late, I've felt a nihilistic indifference grow inside me.

Trying to infulence people on how they should do things is socially amazingly
straining. The outcome at best is usually that people agree with you, but
admit that they do not have any real motivation to do things differently.

If the cause and effect could be observed at a closer distance it might make
all the difference.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
Expecting people to make individual choices isn't really going to work.

I have made changes, for instance I don't own a car or fly anywhere. If I'm
being honest this has meant compromise for me, because I live in a community
of car owners the infrastructure for cyclists is minimal and the public
transport is sparse.

I'll keep doing it and more but I don't expect people around me to change
unless they are forced to.

~~~
qplex
I agree, but find it unlikely that a change will happen top-down either, as
the politicians and corporations are even more corrupted than individuals.

I ride a bicycle too and don't own a car. I buy stuff second hand etc.

I do fly but only because it's pretty much the only way I can get to my family
across the world. I do this about once a year and spend a few months there
whenever I go.

So this is exactly what has been on my mind of late: why bother compromising
your own quality of life at all, if it won't make any real difference?

~~~
xapata
> why bother

Ethics. Which means I'm hypocritical right now.

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breakyerself
We're there now! Bids for new renewable + storage in Colorado coming in lower
than continued operation of an already existing coal fired power plant. Anyone
invested in coal at this point in history is a crazy.

I wouldn't be surprised if 10 years from now renewables and storage are so
cheap it starts to represent a new age of energy availability.

[https://www.vox.com/energy-and-
environment/2018/1/16/1689559...](https://www.vox.com/energy-and-
environment/2018/1/16/16895594/colorado-renewable-energy-future)

------
dang
Discussed at the time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10622615](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10622615)

