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> disincentivizing driving in the process [...] It doesn't matter how small or insignificant your town may seem, every little bit helps You mentioned working i

by rdtsc 8y ago

> disincentivizing driving in the process [...] It doesn't matter how small or insignificant your town may seem, every little bit helps You mentioned working in tech. Wonder what you think about people working from home. Do you see any hope in making progress there. At least as far as programming is concerned, that's one job that can be done remotely. Getting Google, FB or say Microsoft to let people work from home would make a nice difference on the traffic footprint locally. Other companies are likely to follow suit as well. > We need to get people using solar and wind to power their homes. We can do these things at the local level. What are some ways to do it? A local solar plant or rooftop panels on houses. I'd like do it on my house, it's just too expensive it would take too many years for it to pay off. Tax incentives perhaps? > So you can totally be forgiven for having panic attacks In this case she got her (the woman article talk about as an example) children to have panic attacks. That doesn't seem healthy. Panicking leads to paralysis just as much is it can lead to meaningful action. I wouldn't want firefighters or doctors to panic when I am in a burning building on a hospital for instance. > We pretty much know what we have to do -- we have to totally transform our society -- and we know how we have to do it. The issue is over coming the inertia and building the political will to do it. Agreed, good point.

dbingham 8y ago
Working remotely is great for any knowledge job. I work remotely and have done so for over six years. The team I work on is very collaborative and we often pair program or do video chats to consult about a piece of code or a problem. Remote working is no barrier to that. There's really no reason at all that any knowledge job -- anything where your primary work is mental and not manual -- couldn't be remote. Sales is maybe an exception to that since it often requires in person schmoozing. But yeah, remote working is great. It's definitely more sustainable and could save a lot of commute carbon. If it saw wider adoption it could potentially also ease some of the housing pressure on cities like Seattle, San Francisco, and New York; revitalizing a lot of dying small towns in the process. Since the businesses could be based in the big cities, but their employees could live anywhere. --- For getting solar panels on people's home, one of the policies I'm considering running on is the creation of a municipal fund that would purchase rooftop solar for houses in my city, and be repaid through people's utility bills. Basically, people would apply to the fund, low income home owners would be prioritized, the fund would pay for the initial installation of the panels, and then the home owners would repay the cost of the panels over the course of their life through their utility bill payments. In this way, we could gradually get solar on basically every house in the city. I'm sure eventually the local electric utility would get frustrated - because at a certain point the solar generation makes it so that they're losing money maintaining the lines. We have a municipal sewer utility, so we could just offer to have them buy out the power lines and maintain them - municipalizing the electric grid in the process. --- With respect to the panic attacks, I know a number of people, adults who are climate activists, who've also had panic attacks about climate change. Honestly, what would you prefer the woman to do, lie about the state of the climate and what these kids are going to be up against? I mean, I wouldn't talk about it with super young kids, but I'm not going to lie to my kids. Panic attacks are not an unreasonable response. It's terrifying and overwhelming. Kids being born today are probably going to live to 2100, and may well see the total collapse of civilization and the beginnings of a new Permian extinction in their lifetimes if we can't change course. Panicking isn't productive. But it is understandable. Most of the people I know who've had panic attacks are far from paralyzed, they're the among most drive and active people I know.
- rdtsc 8y ago
  > I work remotely and have done so for over six years. Yeah I work remotely as well and enjoy it. I don't have to buy fossil fuels to burn to get to work, I have more time. I think remote work, is probably another mini-revolution that can happen that would change our society for the better in regard to the climate footprint. Good point on revitalizing small towns. But it needs larger companies to start offering this type of work. I am currently hesitant to move to a smaller town or an area with less tech presence because if I have to switch, I don't know if next employer will accept remote work. > Basically, people would apply to the fund, low income home owners would be prioritized, the fund would pay for the initial installation of the panels, and then the home owners would repay the cost of the panels over the course of their life through their utility bill payments. In this way, we could gradually get solar on basically every house in the city. That's a great idea. I like it. Good luck running, I'd support you if you ran in my town. > lie about the state of the climate and what these kids are going to be up against? Any issues can be framed in various ways and if it induces children to cry and be paralyzed by fear, anger whatever I don't think it's productive. Children, and perhaps adults, do better if besides seeing a problem, they are also offered some way to solve it. "Climate is changing, but here what we are going to do to help...". Stuff like "We are writing to a Congressperson, we are selling our car, taking a bus on Fridays etc" is a lot different than "You'll drown in a flood, or live on the streets or die of hunger and nothing can be done".

by rdtsc 8y ago

dbingham 8y ago

Working remotely is great for any knowledge job. I work remotely and have done so for over six years. The team I work on is very collaborative and we often pair program or do video chats to consult about a piece of code or a problem. Remote working is no barrier to that. There's really no reason at all that any knowledge job -- anything where your primary work is mental and not manual -- couldn't be remote. Sales is maybe an exception to that since it often requires in person schmoozing. But yeah, remote working is great. It's definitely more sustainable and could save a lot of commute carbon. If it saw wider adoption it could potentially also ease some of the housing pressure on cities like Seattle, San Francisco, and New York; revitalizing a lot of dying small towns in the process. Since the businesses could be based in the big cities, but their employees could live anywhere. --- For getting solar panels on people's home, one of the policies I'm considering running on is the creation of a municipal fund that would purchase rooftop solar for houses in my city, and be repaid through people's utility bills. Basically, people would apply to the fund, low income home owners would be prioritized, the fund would pay for the initial installation of the panels, and then the home owners would repay the cost of the panels over the course of their life through their utility bill payments. In this way, we could gradually get solar on basically every house in the city. I'm sure eventually the local electric utility would get frustrated - because at a certain point the solar generation makes it so that they're losing money maintaining the lines. We have a municipal sewer utility, so we could just offer to have them buy out the power lines and maintain them - municipalizing the electric grid in the process. --- With respect to the panic attacks, I know a number of people, adults who are climate activists, who've also had panic attacks about climate change. Honestly, what would you prefer the woman to do, lie about the state of the climate and what these kids are going to be up against? I mean, I wouldn't talk about it with super young kids, but I'm not going to lie to my kids. Panic attacks are not an unreasonable response. It's terrifying and overwhelming. Kids being born today are probably going to live to 2100, and may well see the total collapse of civilization and the beginnings of a new Permian extinction in their lifetimes if we can't change course. Panicking isn't productive. But it is understandable. Most of the people I know who've had panic attacks are far from paralyzed, they're the among most drive and active people I know.

rdtsc 8y ago
> I work remotely and have done so for over six years. Yeah I work remotely as well and enjoy it. I don't have to buy fossil fuels to burn to get to work, I have more time. I think remote work, is probably another mini-revolution that can happen that would change our society for the better in regard to the climate footprint. Good point on revitalizing small towns. But it needs larger companies to start offering this type of work. I am currently hesitant to move to a smaller town or an area with less tech presence because if I have to switch, I don't know if next employer will accept remote work. > Basically, people would apply to the fund, low income home owners would be prioritized, the fund would pay for the initial installation of the panels, and then the home owners would repay the cost of the panels over the course of their life through their utility bill payments. In this way, we could gradually get solar on basically every house in the city. That's a great idea. I like it. Good luck running, I'd support you if you ran in my town. > lie about the state of the climate and what these kids are going to be up against? Any issues can be framed in various ways and if it induces children to cry and be paralyzed by fear, anger whatever I don't think it's productive. Children, and perhaps adults, do better if besides seeing a problem, they are also offered some way to solve it. "Climate is changing, but here what we are going to do to help...". Stuff like "We are writing to a Congressperson, we are selling our car, taking a bus on Fridays etc" is a lot different than "You'll drown in a flood, or live on the streets or die of hunger and nothing can be done".