14 ms·

Does anyone have ideas on how a mid-career software developer can switch gears into the clean energy/climate change industry, to do something to help? I've com

by acabal 9y ago

Does anyone have ideas on how a mid-career software developer can switch gears into the clean energy/climate change industry, to do something to help? I've come to think that climate change will be humanity's defining moment, and that we'll all be suffering greatly come mid-to-late-century. I want to do what I can to put my professional skills to use in helping. But I'm not sure where to even begin.

Pulcinella 9y ago
http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/ http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/
- throwaway29292 9y ago
  This is a good link. I particularly liked the ending paragraph about motivation - I think it's all network effect. If my friends and people I look upto were working on environmental engineering then maybe I too would jump into it. Unfortunately, none of my peers work in that area hence I spend time thinking about new buzzwords and technologies instead.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
bjelkeman-again 9y ago
I co-founded a SaaS data startup ten years ago, focused on international development. Most of our work is currently climate mitigation related (water, agriculture, poverty reduction) but also used in sustainable energy, like tracking small scale biogas production. The whole international development field is a USD 130 Bn/year industry, and there may be another USD 100 Bn coming in climate mitigation/renewables. They have mostly really poor key indicator tracking, monitoring of projects etc. Most of the work in none-industrialised countries have really poor data tracking systems, so that is where we thought we could make the biggest impact. But some of our tools are even starting to see traction in Europe. There is plenty to do in this field. Unfortunately there is an uphill struggle even educating people that they need to use data to drive decisions, but it is happening. Happy to answer questions.
- dirtyaura 9y ago
  How did you contact customers, learn more about the field? Did you have prior experience in the field?
  - bjelkeman-again 9y ago
    A couple of the co-founders worked in the sector already and had a broad network which we tapped into. I didn't have prior experience, but I did take a break before this and studied for a degree in environmental science, which is also how I found those co-founders. Went to a policy conference a few times which deals with water issues and was frustrated about how primitive the IT use was, expressed it during a Q&A session and met one of the co-founders as a result.
cel1ne 9y ago
There is a nice essay about that, by Bret Victor: http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/ http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/
ChuckMcM 9y ago
There is an interesting set of choices to make if you switch gears. You can work to reduce impact, reduce existing, or survive change. If you want to focus reducing impact then for CO2 there are many sources for it in developing nations. The US EPA (quick, archive it before it goes away!) lists these for the US[1]; Electricity (35%), Transportation (32%), Industry (15%), Residential & Commercial (10%), and others at 7%. Any endeavor which is cutting into transportation or electricity generation specifically will be most impactful but there are places like better LED lighting for business (reduce commercial electricity consumption). Pretty well plowed but they can always use the help. To act on reducing the existing gas levels perhaps the best place will be sequestration exercises. Generally it helps to have a Chemistry background here because many of the sequestration techniques consist of converting CO2 vapor into something that holds on to the Carbon. There are more mechanical solutions (pumping gas into mines) and there are biological solutions (growing plants rapidly and then burying them) as well. From a software perspective I would imagine the biggest use would be control systems software as these are essentially industrial processes that folks are trying to automate. Finally if you're looking at living with it, then there things like modelling immersion maps for the coastal areas and helping cities plan to migrate to higher land. There are efforts to design more weather tolerant living structures to survive larger and more sustained weather events, and storage and recycling systems to maximize the use of local resources which may become scarce in a different climate. [1] https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases#carbon-dioxide https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases#c...
- jaredklewis 9y ago
  Interesting. Do you think there is a role for tech in things like preventing further deforestation of existing natural environment?
  - ChuckMcM 9y ago
    Directly or indirectly? There are groups that use satellite data to analyze deforestation and identify countries that are not living up to treaty obligations, or within those countries identifying illegal deforestation activity[1]. However I suspect the 'tech' side of this is much less manpower intensive than the 'enforcement' side of this. [1] https://www.wired.com/2015/04/using-smart-satellites-to-monitor-deforestation-from-space/ https://www.wired.com/2015/04/using-smart-satellites-to-moni...
ams6110 9y ago
You might want to work on a way to make a convincing argument to the general public. Because the echo chamber here notwithstanding, where I live nobody really believes there is a climate problem, or at best they give it lip service while they drive their new Escalade to Starbucks for a $5 cup of coffee. I think that in reality we will not see people changing behaviors unless and until there are real observable climate changes that are affecting their lives. And even then I have my doubts.
- robbiemitchell 9y ago
  For the Conservative crowd, we need to characterize renewable energy as energy independence.
  - bhickey 9y ago
    And carbon taxes as reducing regulation.
    - alphapapa 9y ago
      How are you going to spin that?
      - losteric 9y ago
        It's a strategic regulation that replaces multiple tactical regulations. Therefore, carbon tax leads to fewer regulations.
        alphapapa 9y ago
        Which regulations does it replace?
        omegaworks 9y ago
        Cap and trade, in California, at least. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2017/03/02/california-lurches-for-a-carbon-tax-after-consecutive-greenhouse-gas-auction-failures/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2017/03/02/californ...
tzs 9y ago
If in the US I'd suggest getting politically active. It will take long enough even according to the pessimistic models (assuming we don't hit some doomsday scenario like the clathrate gun) for things to actually get noticeably bad [1] that a lot of people will choose short term profit over long term fixing the climate. That means that to seriously get things done soon is going to require government action, and that means politics. Regardless of whether you lean to the left or the right, register as a Republican and participate in the Republican primaries or caucuses for your local, state, and national offices supporting those Republicans who acknowledge that climate change is a series problem and that the government needs to play an active role in slowing, stopping, or reversing it. I say register as a Republican, even if you would normally be something more to the left, because right now the Democrats are much more likely to nominate candidates that acknowledge climate change and the need for strong government action. The Republicans do have some people who believe that, but they currently rarely get nominated. What we need to see is general elections where it is both the Democrat and the Republican that are on the right side of climate change so that no matter which party wins the election we get a government that will do something about the problem. [1] Generally what most places will see is that bad things that already happen there will very slowly happen a little more often, and get a little more bad. But in many places there will also be good things that start happening a little more often and get a little bit better. It will take a generation or two before these changes have become big enough and frequent enough in most places that it will really be noticeable to the people there that yup, their climate has changed.
- alphapapa 9y ago
  Just to be clear, you're advocating dishonesty and deception--essentially, infiltration, a tactic used in espionage. This lies in stark contrast to the idea that progress comes by openly researching, and debating, and convincing one's opponents with reasoned arguments and evidence. If you have to deceive people to win, are you really "on the right side"? Or is everyone else just so stupid that you have no choice? You know, that the ends justify the means (an argument that has never been abused throughout history).
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
trentmb 9y ago
Stay where you are, command a higher salary, donate to environmental causes.
gooserock 9y ago
> Does anyone have ideas on how a mid-career software developer can switch gears into the clean energy/climate change industry, to do something to help It's easy. - Stop flying. - Eat less meat. - Buy less stuff. - Use less energy.
- epistasis 9y ago
  This is not a personal responsibility problem, it's a societal priority problem. Living "virtuously" only changes your own impact. We need to change impact globally. We need to make jets that run on biofuels or synthetic fuels. We need to change our energy systems to be carbon neutral. We need to help the developing start using carbon neutral technologies directly, without going through a fossil fuel phase. These are the things that will stop climate change. Changing one's own impact does very little.
  - tossaway33 9y ago
    be the change you want to see in the world
    - mozumder 9y ago
      Yah that doesn't work. What works is "force others to change". We're not going to solve global warming without forcing everyone to change. It's not a personal problem, and in fact, you can have small-scale cases of large carbon footprint. It's not a problem if Leonardo DiCaprio is flying a private jet. It's only a problem if a lot of people are flying private jets.
      - bdamm 9y ago
        Everyone could fly private jets if we had a carbon neutral cycle to manufacture and fuel them.
    - epistasis 9y ago
      The reason that works is that it shows others what is possible and what it is like, eventually converting others around you. In the case of climate change, austerity living may actually be counterproductive towards convincing others. The change we need in the world is both technology and attitude.
titojankowski 9y ago
I published "A Biohacker's Guide to Climate Change" with you in mind: http://titojankowski.com/a-biohackers-guide-to-climate-change/ http://titojankowski.com/a-biohackers-guide-to-climate-chang... (First draft, would love to know what to add) I was curious about climate change. To start I cut out all the noise. I looked for things I could see, touch, and plug into. Put those tech skills to work! There are plenty of opportunities, where you have the most value is bringing your expertise to bear. Email me: tito@impossiblelabs.io
nngrey 9y ago
I got involved with this bi-partisan group. I would like to do even more, but this was a good start for me. http://citizensclimatelobby.org/ http://citizensclimatelobby.org/
crush-n-spread 9y ago
Hello, please read up on Advanced Silicate Weathering, it is a feasible carbon sequestration technique. It is probably the best option that we have to get the carbon cycle back under control. http://www.greensand.nl/content/user/1/files/rog20004.pdf http://www.greensand.nl/content/user/1/files/rog20004.pdf The idea is you crush and spread silicate rock dust, it produces cations and goes into the ocean, and then reacts with and absorbs carbon from the atmosphere to produce a carbonate mineral that fertilizes ocean life and de-acidifies the oceans. Requires crushing hundreds of cubic km of rock per year, and spreading the product in damp jungle climates and coastlines.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
jorgen123 9y ago
You could pick a solution area you feel attracted to from the Drawdown book (http://www.drawdown.org http://www.drawdown.org) and see how you can contribute. The Drawdown team has spent several years computing and ranking the impact of over 100 solution areas that can combine to reduce CO2 while also providing other benefits (so called no-regret solutions) You may find that high impact solutions are in areas you may not be thinking about but that energize you, like the fact that educating girls beats out rooftop solar power (which is also a very high ranking solution).
- losteric 9y ago
  Nice, I've been looking for something like this! Do you happen to know what this kind of work is called? I'd like to find more from other fields and distribute them at my local college.
dferince 9y ago
Computers use a lot of energy (that 1000 watt power supply). Consider choosing more environmentally friendly options. Use a lower level language like c instead of python or JavaScript for a program that will be run by many people and machines. An order of magnitude or two of energy savings is possible. Use and build command line interfaces instead of conversational interfaces. Google recently said as to why they built TPUs, "If we considered a scenario where people use Google voice search for just three minutes a day and we ran deep neural nets for our speech recognition system on the processing units we were using, we would have had to double the number of Google data centers!". Avoid that shiny new framework that makes older laptop fans run at full blast. Just because you don't see the smoke doesn't mean that your programs aren't burning a ton of fossil fuels.
Jach 9y ago
Use your intelligence to get a degree / study in the relevant earth science fields along with physical engineering study. Work towards geoengineering. Full control of all the earth's natural systems (climate, evolution, aging, lifetime of the sun...) is humanity's destiny, best get working on what we can now. Of course political activism is available, but the question then is where to push on that front. Enough people are working on awareness, probably not enough are working on amending the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity and London's Convention on Dumping of Wastes at Sea to allow and encourage geoengineering on an international scale in the first place. Something as simple as dumping lots of iron in the ocean ("iron fertilization") could be all we need to do in the short term, but there's a lot of resistance to it. If I were interested in this path I'd focus on removing that resistance politically and/or scientifically.
titojankowski 9y ago
Your question inspired a blog post! Climate Change 2.0, How to Hack Your Way In To The Climate Change Revolution http://titojankowski.com/climate-change-2-0-how-to-hack-your-way-into-the-climate-change-revolution/ http://titojankowski.com/climate-change-2-0-how-to-hack-your... If you find this topic interesting, join the Google group Climate Change 2.0: A Call to Adventure https://groups.google.com/forum/?nomobile=true#!forum/climate-change-adventures https://groups.google.com/forum/?nomobile=true#!forum/climat...
- mbrookes 9y ago
  > How to Hack Your Way In To The Climate Change Revolution This is just a list of (mostly) ill-informed questions rather than "Thought-Provoking Climate Change 2.0 Ideas", and certainly don't answer acabal's question, or the address title of the post.
  - titojankowski 9y ago
    Thanks for the feedback! You're totally right it could be better with more relevant ideas and especially a connection to programming opportunities would be cool. Any ideas or thoughts that you'd add to a revision to be more relevant? It's a work in progress!
ocschwar 9y ago
> Does anyone have ideas on how a mid-career software developer can switch gears into the clean energy/climate change industry, to do something to help? I'm in it right now. The best thing to do right now is to exert as much political pressure, because half the workplaces you're thinking of joining are in the current administration's crosshairs.
tim333 9y ago
Apply for software jobs in companies working on that stuff eg. Solar City / Tesla?
FrozenVoid 9y ago
Actually, software engineering does affect climate. By choosing slower but high-level languages and abstract/generic code over optimized/low-level code, the servers and datacenters consume more energy(cooling, electricity, the amount of servers used) creating a greater fossil fuel demand. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/global-warming-data-centres-to-consume-three-times-as-much-energy-in-next-decade-experts-warn-a6830086.html http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/global-warming-data...

by acabal 9y ago

Pulcinella 9y ago

http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/ http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/

throwaway29292 9y ago
This is a good link. I particularly liked the ending paragraph about motivation - I think it's all network effect. If my friends and people I look upto were working on environmental engineering then maybe I too would jump into it. Unfortunately, none of my peers work in that area hence I spend time thinking about new buzzwords and technologies instead.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

bjelkeman-again 9y ago

I co-founded a SaaS data startup ten years ago, focused on international development. Most of our work is currently climate mitigation related (water, agriculture, poverty reduction) but also used in sustainable energy, like tracking small scale biogas production. The whole international development field is a USD 130 Bn/year industry, and there may be another USD 100 Bn coming in climate mitigation/renewables. They have mostly really poor key indicator tracking, monitoring of projects etc. Most of the work in none-industrialised countries have really poor data tracking systems, so that is where we thought we could make the biggest impact. But some of our tools are even starting to see traction in Europe. There is plenty to do in this field. Unfortunately there is an uphill struggle even educating people that they need to use data to drive decisions, but it is happening. Happy to answer questions.

dirtyaura 9y ago
How did you contact customers, learn more about the field? Did you have prior experience in the field?
- bjelkeman-again 9y ago
  A couple of the co-founders worked in the sector already and had a broad network which we tapped into. I didn't have prior experience, but I did take a break before this and studied for a degree in environmental science, which is also how I found those co-founders. Went to a policy conference a few times which deals with water issues and was frustrated about how primitive the IT use was, expressed it during a Q&A session and met one of the co-founders as a result.

cel1ne 9y ago

There is a nice essay about that, by Bret Victor: http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/ http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/

ChuckMcM 9y ago

There is an interesting set of choices to make if you switch gears. You can work to reduce impact, reduce existing, or survive change. If you want to focus reducing impact then for CO2 there are many sources for it in developing nations. The US EPA (quick, archive it before it goes away!) lists these for the US[1]; Electricity (35%), Transportation (32%), Industry (15%), Residential & Commercial (10%), and others at 7%. Any endeavor which is cutting into transportation or electricity generation specifically will be most impactful but there are places like better LED lighting for business (reduce commercial electricity consumption). Pretty well plowed but they can always use the help. To act on reducing the existing gas levels perhaps the best place will be sequestration exercises. Generally it helps to have a Chemistry background here because many of the sequestration techniques consist of converting CO2 vapor into something that holds on to the Carbon. There are more mechanical solutions (pumping gas into mines) and there are biological solutions (growing plants rapidly and then burying them) as well. From a software perspective I would imagine the biggest use would be control systems software as these are essentially industrial processes that folks are trying to automate. Finally if you're looking at living with it, then there things like modelling immersion maps for the coastal areas and helping cities plan to migrate to higher land. There are efforts to design more weather tolerant living structures to survive larger and more sustained weather events, and storage and recycling systems to maximize the use of local resources which may become scarce in a different climate. [1] https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases#carbon-dioxide https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases#c...

jaredklewis 9y ago
Interesting. Do you think there is a role for tech in things like preventing further deforestation of existing natural environment?
- ChuckMcM 9y ago
  Directly or indirectly? There are groups that use satellite data to analyze deforestation and identify countries that are not living up to treaty obligations, or within those countries identifying illegal deforestation activity[1]. However I suspect the 'tech' side of this is much less manpower intensive than the 'enforcement' side of this. [1] https://www.wired.com/2015/04/using-smart-satellites-to-monitor-deforestation-from-space/ https://www.wired.com/2015/04/using-smart-satellites-to-moni...

ams6110 9y ago

You might want to work on a way to make a convincing argument to the general public. Because the echo chamber here notwithstanding, where I live nobody really believes there is a climate problem, or at best they give it lip service while they drive their new Escalade to Starbucks for a $5 cup of coffee. I think that in reality we will not see people changing behaviors unless and until there are real observable climate changes that are affecting their lives. And even then I have my doubts.

robbiemitchell 9y ago
For the Conservative crowd, we need to characterize renewable energy as energy independence.
- bhickey 9y ago
  And carbon taxes as reducing regulation.
  - alphapapa 9y ago
    How are you going to spin that?
    - losteric 9y ago
      It's a strategic regulation that replaces multiple tactical regulations. Therefore, carbon tax leads to fewer regulations.
      - alphapapa 9y ago
        Which regulations does it replace?
        omegaworks 9y ago
        Cap and trade, in California, at least. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2017/03/02/california-lurches-for-a-carbon-tax-after-consecutive-greenhouse-gas-auction-failures/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2017/03/02/californ...

tzs 9y ago

If in the US I'd suggest getting politically active. It will take long enough even according to the pessimistic models (assuming we don't hit some doomsday scenario like the clathrate gun) for things to actually get noticeably bad [1] that a lot of people will choose short term profit over long term fixing the climate. That means that to seriously get things done soon is going to require government action, and that means politics. Regardless of whether you lean to the left or the right, register as a Republican and participate in the Republican primaries or caucuses for your local, state, and national offices supporting those Republicans who acknowledge that climate change is a series problem and that the government needs to play an active role in slowing, stopping, or reversing it. I say register as a Republican, even if you would normally be something more to the left, because right now the Democrats are much more likely to nominate candidates that acknowledge climate change and the need for strong government action. The Republicans do have some people who believe that, but they currently rarely get nominated. What we need to see is general elections where it is both the Democrat and the Republican that are on the right side of climate change so that no matter which party wins the election we get a government that will do something about the problem. [1] Generally what most places will see is that bad things that already happen there will very slowly happen a little more often, and get a little more bad. But in many places there will also be good things that start happening a little more often and get a little bit better. It will take a generation or two before these changes have become big enough and frequent enough in most places that it will really be noticeable to the people there that yup, their climate has changed.

alphapapa 9y ago
Just to be clear, you're advocating dishonesty and deception--essentially, infiltration, a tactic used in espionage. This lies in stark contrast to the idea that progress comes by openly researching, and debating, and convincing one's opponents with reasoned arguments and evidence. If you have to deceive people to win, are you really "on the right side"? Or is everyone else just so stupid that you have no choice? You know, that the ends justify the means (an argument that has never been abused throughout history).
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

trentmb 9y ago

Stay where you are, command a higher salary, donate to environmental causes.

gooserock 9y ago

> Does anyone have ideas on how a mid-career software developer can switch gears into the clean energy/climate change industry, to do something to help It's easy. - Stop flying. - Eat less meat. - Buy less stuff. - Use less energy.

epistasis 9y ago
This is not a personal responsibility problem, it's a societal priority problem. Living "virtuously" only changes your own impact. We need to change impact globally. We need to make jets that run on biofuels or synthetic fuels. We need to change our energy systems to be carbon neutral. We need to help the developing start using carbon neutral technologies directly, without going through a fossil fuel phase. These are the things that will stop climate change. Changing one's own impact does very little.
- tossaway33 9y ago
  be the change you want to see in the world
  - mozumder 9y ago
    Yah that doesn't work. What works is "force others to change". We're not going to solve global warming without forcing everyone to change. It's not a personal problem, and in fact, you can have small-scale cases of large carbon footprint. It's not a problem if Leonardo DiCaprio is flying a private jet. It's only a problem if a lot of people are flying private jets.
    - bdamm 9y ago
      Everyone could fly private jets if we had a carbon neutral cycle to manufacture and fuel them.
  - epistasis 9y ago
    The reason that works is that it shows others what is possible and what it is like, eventually converting others around you. In the case of climate change, austerity living may actually be counterproductive towards convincing others. The change we need in the world is both technology and attitude.

titojankowski 9y ago

I published "A Biohacker's Guide to Climate Change" with you in mind: http://titojankowski.com/a-biohackers-guide-to-climate-change/ http://titojankowski.com/a-biohackers-guide-to-climate-chang... (First draft, would love to know what to add) I was curious about climate change. To start I cut out all the noise. I looked for things I could see, touch, and plug into. Put those tech skills to work! There are plenty of opportunities, where you have the most value is bringing your expertise to bear. Email me: tito@impossiblelabs.io

nngrey 9y ago

I got involved with this bi-partisan group. I would like to do even more, but this was a good start for me. http://citizensclimatelobby.org/ http://citizensclimatelobby.org/

crush-n-spread 9y ago

Hello, please read up on Advanced Silicate Weathering, it is a feasible carbon sequestration technique. It is probably the best option that we have to get the carbon cycle back under control. http://www.greensand.nl/content/user/1/files/rog20004.pdf http://www.greensand.nl/content/user/1/files/rog20004.pdf The idea is you crush and spread silicate rock dust, it produces cations and goes into the ocean, and then reacts with and absorbs carbon from the atmosphere to produce a carbonate mineral that fertilizes ocean life and de-acidifies the oceans. Requires crushing hundreds of cubic km of rock per year, and spreading the product in damp jungle climates and coastlines.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

jorgen123 9y ago

You could pick a solution area you feel attracted to from the Drawdown book (http://www.drawdown.org http://www.drawdown.org) and see how you can contribute. The Drawdown team has spent several years computing and ranking the impact of over 100 solution areas that can combine to reduce CO2 while also providing other benefits (so called no-regret solutions) You may find that high impact solutions are in areas you may not be thinking about but that energize you, like the fact that educating girls beats out rooftop solar power (which is also a very high ranking solution).

losteric 9y ago
Nice, I've been looking for something like this! Do you happen to know what this kind of work is called? I'd like to find more from other fields and distribute them at my local college.

dferince 9y ago

Computers use a lot of energy (that 1000 watt power supply). Consider choosing more environmentally friendly options. Use a lower level language like c instead of python or JavaScript for a program that will be run by many people and machines. An order of magnitude or two of energy savings is possible. Use and build command line interfaces instead of conversational interfaces. Google recently said as to why they built TPUs, "If we considered a scenario where people use Google voice search for just three minutes a day and we ran deep neural nets for our speech recognition system on the processing units we were using, we would have had to double the number of Google data centers!". Avoid that shiny new framework that makes older laptop fans run at full blast. Just because you don't see the smoke doesn't mean that your programs aren't burning a ton of fossil fuels.

Jach 9y ago

Use your intelligence to get a degree / study in the relevant earth science fields along with physical engineering study. Work towards geoengineering. Full control of all the earth's natural systems (climate, evolution, aging, lifetime of the sun...) is humanity's destiny, best get working on what we can now. Of course political activism is available, but the question then is where to push on that front. Enough people are working on awareness, probably not enough are working on amending the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity and London's Convention on Dumping of Wastes at Sea to allow and encourage geoengineering on an international scale in the first place. Something as simple as dumping lots of iron in the ocean ("iron fertilization") could be all we need to do in the short term, but there's a lot of resistance to it. If I were interested in this path I'd focus on removing that resistance politically and/or scientifically.

titojankowski 9y ago

Your question inspired a blog post! Climate Change 2.0, How to Hack Your Way In To The Climate Change Revolution http://titojankowski.com/climate-change-2-0-how-to-hack-your-way-into-the-climate-change-revolution/ http://titojankowski.com/climate-change-2-0-how-to-hack-your... If you find this topic interesting, join the Google group Climate Change 2.0: A Call to Adventure https://groups.google.com/forum/?nomobile=true#!forum/climate-change-adventures https://groups.google.com/forum/?nomobile=true#!forum/climat...

mbrookes 9y ago
> How to Hack Your Way In To The Climate Change Revolution This is just a list of (mostly) ill-informed questions rather than "Thought-Provoking Climate Change 2.0 Ideas", and certainly don't answer acabal's question, or the address title of the post.
- titojankowski 9y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! You're totally right it could be better with more relevant ideas and especially a connection to programming opportunities would be cool. Any ideas or thoughts that you'd add to a revision to be more relevant? It's a work in progress!

ocschwar 9y ago

> Does anyone have ideas on how a mid-career software developer can switch gears into the clean energy/climate change industry, to do something to help? I'm in it right now. The best thing to do right now is to exert as much political pressure, because half the workplaces you're thinking of joining are in the current administration's crosshairs.

tim333 9y ago

Apply for software jobs in companies working on that stuff eg. Solar City / Tesla?

FrozenVoid 9y ago

Actually, software engineering does affect climate. By choosing slower but high-level languages and abstract/generic code over optimized/low-level code, the servers and datacenters consume more energy(cooling, electricity, the amount of servers used) creating a greater fossil fuel demand. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/global-warming-data-centres-to-consume-three-times-as-much-energy-in-next-decade-experts-warn-a6830086.html http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/global-warming-data...