4 ms·

Let's say I'm a regular web developer and know nothing about climate science, carbon removal, or any related science or technologies, but might be interested in

Let's say I'm a regular web developer and know nothing about climate science, carbon removal, or any related science or technologies, but might be interested in donating my time and and skills. Do you have any recommendations?

Rapzid 7y ago
This is probably a really sensitive topic but.. Donating your time to help get politicians elected who are serious about doing what's necessary may be the best thing you can do.
- titojankowski 7y ago
  Politicians are powerless without good technology options. Today, the technology options are not good. but good options are within sight. As a technologist, let's go make better tech. Climate change is a technology problem and a marketing problem. YC's carbon site does a great job marketing for these crucial technologies: http://carbon.ycombinator.com/ http://carbon.ycombinator.com/
  - icebraining 7y ago
    Politicians can also direct funds to the development of such technology.
  - adrianN 7y ago
    The technology options today are good enough. We can start building wind turbines and solar panels right now. We can insulate homes right now. We can replace oil and gas heating with heat pumps right now. Storage only becomes a problem when a quite significant chunk of the generation is intermittent. But even then, today's batteries are good enough for overnight storage, and for longer term storage we can use power-to-gas processes.
    - titojankowski 7y ago
      heck yeah let's do that! Solar tech has gotten so much cheaper and better, my friend is replacing what used to be $30k of panels for $2k.
- peacetreefrog 7y ago
  I think this is seriously naive.
titojankowski 7y ago
Glad you asked! Basically, imagine I told you not much had been built and climate folks don't really "get" software. It's true. The same revolution that connected software and biotech is coming to the climate. There's tons of super duper obvious stuff that has yet to be built. You would probably guess there's a great website for tracking carbon levels in the air. Like that's super basic right? Well There's not...or at least there wasn't. This was/is the gold standard: https://www.co2.earth/ https://www.co2.earth/ https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/ https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/ Then last year a volunteer team (including me) built http://carbondoomsday.com http://carbondoomsday.com it's open source on Github, you could work on that! It's a bit rough around the edges still. Could use a twitter bot! You could also check out our index at: http://airminers.org http://airminers.org The software is pretty simple right now but we could improve it a lot! Software related to climate change got stuck in the 90's...and you can break it out! Build cool shit! Email me with any questions, see profile.
xoraes 7y ago
Here is an article that perfectly addresses your query: http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/ http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/ Sorry I would like to type an elaborate response, but I'm on phone for the day.
- titojankowski 7y ago
  heck yeah! "what can a technologist do about climate change" is my daily mantra.

Rapzid 7y ago

This is probably a really sensitive topic but.. Donating your time to help get politicians elected who are serious about doing what's necessary may be the best thing you can do.

titojankowski 7y ago
Politicians are powerless without good technology options. Today, the technology options are not good. but good options are within sight. As a technologist, let's go make better tech. Climate change is a technology problem and a marketing problem. YC's carbon site does a great job marketing for these crucial technologies: http://carbon.ycombinator.com/ http://carbon.ycombinator.com/
- icebraining 7y ago
  Politicians can also direct funds to the development of such technology.
- adrianN 7y ago
  The technology options today are good enough. We can start building wind turbines and solar panels right now. We can insulate homes right now. We can replace oil and gas heating with heat pumps right now. Storage only becomes a problem when a quite significant chunk of the generation is intermittent. But even then, today's batteries are good enough for overnight storage, and for longer term storage we can use power-to-gas processes.
  - titojankowski 7y ago
    heck yeah let's do that! Solar tech has gotten so much cheaper and better, my friend is replacing what used to be $30k of panels for $2k.
peacetreefrog 7y ago
I think this is seriously naive.

titojankowski 7y ago

Glad you asked! Basically, imagine I told you not much had been built and climate folks don't really "get" software. It's true. The same revolution that connected software and biotech is coming to the climate. There's tons of super duper obvious stuff that has yet to be built. You would probably guess there's a great website for tracking carbon levels in the air. Like that's super basic right? Well There's not...or at least there wasn't. This was/is the gold standard: https://www.co2.earth/ https://www.co2.earth/ https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/ https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/ Then last year a volunteer team (including me) built http://carbondoomsday.com http://carbondoomsday.com it's open source on Github, you could work on that! It's a bit rough around the edges still. Could use a twitter bot! You could also check out our index at: http://airminers.org http://airminers.org The software is pretty simple right now but we could improve it a lot! Software related to climate change got stuck in the 90's...and you can break it out! Build cool shit! Email me with any questions, see profile.

xoraes 7y ago

Here is an article that perfectly addresses your query: http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/ http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/ Sorry I would like to type an elaborate response, but I'm on phone for the day.

titojankowski 7y ago
heck yeah! "what can a technologist do about climate change" is my daily mantra.