[Project drawdown](https://drawdown.org/solutions/table-of-solutions) lists a large number of ranked solutions to fight climate change. A good way to find sectors you might easily become passionate about but hadn't considered. The [80,000 hours](https://80000hours.org/) website also has a job board and provides a lot of excellent resources. All the best in your journey :)
The book Project Drawdown is a good primer, with pictures! [1]
After that, the My Climate Journey [2] and Work on Climate [3] communities are excellent entry points.
Climate is a big buffet full of all sorts of cool problems to help solve. I'm focused on carbon removal as an example, but we need millions of people working across all aspects of the planetary system.
I'm curious: if you think so much about climate change and its effects, and even plan your actions and location around it, have you considered directing your energy to combatting climate change with your skills on a systemic level? (For example, building sustainability companies, being part of climate activism, earning-to-donate?)
I'm in a similar spot but optimistic about systemic action.
You could pick a solution area you feel attracted to from the Drawdown book (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).
...it doesn't have to be climate change per se. The point is that if you don't see things to improve on a given level, look at a higher level. Or a longer time horizon.
A lot of this is going to be hard to solve on the level of software. But not all! And maybe you can team up with people with other skills.
"Project Drawdown’s mission is to help the world stop climate change—as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible.
We do this by advancing effective, science-based climate solutions and strategies; fostering bold, new climate leadership; and promoting new climate narratives and new voices."
Something that you may find useful that I came across recently is Climateaction.tech [0], which may have some overlap that you could take advantage of.
This feels like one of the most effective ways to solve climate change. Working at a national or international is slowed way down by a ton of competing interests. Working at a personal level like you're barely making a dent. But working a community level feels right. It's big enough to notice an impact but small enough for individuals to make a difference.
Thank you for spreading the word about Drawdown and CCL!
They are probably the two easiest ways regular folks can learn about and get involved in climate policy (and I mean real impacts, not just clicktivism).
Please get involved – it takes no money and very little time!
If you want to contribute to climate change, I think you should push for more JavaScript/J2EE/.NET apps, 4K streaming, Big Data frameworks, mainframes, and proof-of-work blockchains. Make sure people build them in areas that generate electricity with non-renewable resources. Avoid any energy-saving tech in the datacenters, offices, or your home.
If you want to reduce climate change, I think you should just follow FroshKiller's advice. You might also evangelize solutions to the public and politicians that provide decent compromises with reduced pollutants. You should also pay campaign contributions to politicians most likely to do that as this counts more than ten thousand opinions from voters. These will collectively probably achieve nothing given industrial nations overall don't care about climate change vs money, jobs, and disposable goods. You'll at least be doing your part.
A similar discussion from half a year ago on HN [0]. Everytime I see concerning articles like these on drastic impact of climate change, it is always followed by a discussion on how disheartening and worrisome it is.
However, what I would really like to see is a discussion on what we, as engineers or skilled professionals or converned citizens of the only liveable planet, do to make an impactful difference. I am sure a lot of us do our part by making little changes in our everyday life such as reducing consumption, choosing public transportation, being aware of the source of the goods we consume, so on and so forth. But there is very little hope that these small changes will get us where we need to be.
I found this [1] firm that aims to match you to organizations doing impactful work on a larger scale, in case it is interesting for anyone. Hoping to see more such resources or strategies.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the global climate crisis. I made this as a response to the problem, ”I don’t know what I can do to help”.
https://collective.energy is a community for crowdsourcing climate solutions & actions. The platform empowers individuals by providing inspiration, feedback, and an audience. Turn climate ideas into plans into reality - all in one place.
Feel free to make an account and post. It's far from perfect but let me know what you think. I'd love helpful feedback.
Hey, I felt the same which led me to create Impact Makers earlier this year. There are various projects there aiming to help fight climate change which you can contribute to. https://techimpactmakers.com/
Also checkout https://fixathon.io - an online hackathon to help fix the climate.
http://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank
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