4 ms·

There are plenty of folks on HN who are trying to solve climate change, myself included. But if you spend enough time in the industry, it becomes apparent that

There are plenty of folks on HN who are trying to solve climate change, myself included. But if you spend enough time in the industry, it becomes apparent that it is incredibly difficult to move the needle without significant government level intervention. For example, no matter how hard you try, there will be no profitable carbon capture venture under our current regulatory regime. Every scheme to sell some sort of carbon capture derived chemical product will fail to compete against traditional fossil fuel produced equivalents. It is a matter of physics, not hacker spirit. The government either needs to support the carbon capture market, or regulate against the fossil fuel industry. There is no "free market" approach that works here.

pirate787 5y ago
The free market approach is to tax carbon emissions. Capture the externality of carbon in the economic and pricing system, and you'll unleash innovation and competition to reduce that cost.
- nitrogen 5y ago
  This gets repeated so often I've come to believe it's not the right call. We need to think both bigger and smaller, and put the innovation first. We should also be looking at mitigations and adaptations, not just prevention. Is anyone researching ultra-rapid construction techniques to repair infrastructure damaged by flooding? Rapid assembly temporary bridges to evacuate people over swollen rivers? New techniques to raise entire cities like Portland was ages ago? Personal inflatable rafts with built-in emergency kits for navigation in flooded cities? Better and faster sea walls? Directing rising sea levels into below-sea-level basins through canals (Salton Sea beachfront property!)?
utexaspunk 5y ago
Sadly, the most profitable use for the CO2 might be piping it to an aging oil field and using it for a [CO2 flood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_flooding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_flooding) to recover more oil. So even when you're doing good you're still doing bad. :\

pirate787 5y ago

The free market approach is to tax carbon emissions. Capture the externality of carbon in the economic and pricing system, and you'll unleash innovation and competition to reduce that cost.

nitrogen 5y ago
This gets repeated so often I've come to believe it's not the right call. We need to think both bigger and smaller, and put the innovation first. We should also be looking at mitigations and adaptations, not just prevention. Is anyone researching ultra-rapid construction techniques to repair infrastructure damaged by flooding? Rapid assembly temporary bridges to evacuate people over swollen rivers? New techniques to raise entire cities like Portland was ages ago? Personal inflatable rafts with built-in emergency kits for navigation in flooded cities? Better and faster sea walls? Directing rising sea levels into below-sea-level basins through canals (Salton Sea beachfront property!)?

utexaspunk 5y ago

Sadly, the most profitable use for the CO2 might be piping it to an aging oil field and using it for a [CO2 flood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_flooding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_flooding) to recover more oil. So even when you're doing good you're still doing bad. :\