Ask HN: Is There Any Interest in an Open Source Solution for Climate Change | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is There Any Interest in an Open Source Solution for Climate Change

26 pointsmonster2control14 comments

In the computer world we have used Open Source Software to solve a lot of problems, spark numerous ideas and I believe have made the world a much better place in the digital realm because of it.

I keep reading about companies trying to solve climate based problems with for profit models and closed source ideas.

This issue is too big and too important to put all our hope in private organizations or even governments to solve the issues. Good ideas could be killed because they are not profitable or too slow to roll out because of government red tape.

We need a github like Platform for open source ideas, hardware, software, anything at all to help combat climate change before it’s too late.

Who would be interested in starting a project like this? Where do we start? Does something like a basic up and down voting system of ideas sound useful? How do we get experts to contribute?

Or have I missed the boat and didn’t find something that already exist when I googled?

Hi OP, I'm Paul. I'm solving climate change and I'd like for you to join me.

I've set up a public benefit corporation, CarbonSpace.org. Just a landing page at the moment, but I've signed up friends and family while in private beta and the run rate with this group alone is already above 4m pounds of CO2 annually (more than just carbon neutral). We're doing it by lowering our carbon footprint as efficiently as possible while at the same time funding methane gas projects that reduce emissions on an industrial scale. The first milestone for the network is 10m lbs, which we'll hit in a few months.

Hit me up if interested.[paul]{@}[carbonspace][.][org]

I have recently thought about applying workflows and ideas of the open source and software world to real world issues. I was imagining a web platform to locate, describe, discuss and eventually solve issues together. While one of my "example" issues is climate change, I wouldn't dedicate the platform only to this issue but make it a generic tool.

I have written down some of my thoughts about this and if someone is interested I would be willing to share them and discuss this topic.

While doing some research, I also stumbled upon some ideas by David Ernst ([1] and [2]). I think he was heading into the same direction some years ago and he is now running a platform for "liquid democracy" in the US [3].

[1] http://dsernst.com/2016/02/24/open-think-tank/ [2] https://github.com/utopia/building [3] https://liquid.us

This sounds really interesting. What does the “solve” stage look like for various issues?

Generally this could include collection, verification and implementation of solution proposals.

If a proposed solution is accepted by the community its progress can be tracked. I think it is important to have some kind of status and goal, ideally in numbers, to encourage people to participate. For many issues we currently don't receive positive feedback, even when we are actually making progress (often on a small scale) and I think this is a real problem.

For the matter of climate change this could be setting personal goals like reducing your own CO2 footprint.

Or community efforts on a local/regional scale. For example collecting signatures to support a green energy project.

Or financial investments in the renewable energy sector or donations to NGOs, etc.

Users of the platform could get a estimate of what impact various measures would have (in this case for example mass of CO2 or raise in global temperature, etc.) and could see who actively works on a solution.

That sounds awesome. I made a github org to get people together who want to hack on this type of thing: https://github.com/climate-technologists/discussion

Ideas are fine, but action is important.

Some kind of tool to surface the most pressing problems, list the current best solutions, then allow users to enlist in implementing the solutions in their life and tracking them with friends might make an impact.

That could be an open source platform, with volunteer coders, curators, and donators for server and other costs.

This sounds very similar to the kind of platform I was thinking about.

Your heart's in the right place, but trying to save the world by focusing on a gas in our atmosphere is probably not the best way to do it.

Whether you're right or not about C02 being a problem, it's more important that we increase child nutrition and education, having a couple million more smart & able people to help with stewarding Humanity and Earth will probably do everyone a lot more help. This piece explains this position well: https://youtu.be/T7pwFxQqOxQ

Also, you're not going to want to hear this but the global climate is a lot more nuanced than most scientists realize. How many of them can handle the concepts of electrical engineering? The climate models have not been taking particle forcing into account, they've all been assuming a simplistic view of the Earth's dynamics akin to a steam engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYoOcaqCzxo

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19247308

^ I'd like to contribute this idea: "Creating the world's largest battery deep below the sea."

I'm working on other ideas as well and would love to contribute in a more formal decentralized way.

I'll follow this thread and reach out to folks as well! eric at syllablehq.com

Environmental problems will only be solved if 1) people can earn money by solving it 2) people hit a breaking point, and actually drop what they're doing to help

...and #2 doesn't seem very likely for a while. So the only practical thing to do right now is spread awareness and to support companies implementing #1. I made a comment here about permaculture which I recommend you see [1]. And I also have an example company implementing #1 [2]. And here's an example of #1 actually happening [3].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18215706 [2] https://youtu.be/mETzoNau5A8 [3] https://youtu.be/_3KkN8hvUCI

I'm actually at option 2 right now but don't know how to put my skills to use in this area.

I'm in my early 20's and have reached a breaking point where I'm genuinely willing to drop everything including quit my job to help towards a realistic solution.

I'm very concerned that climate change will seriously effect us in the near future and I don't see change being made quickly enough.

I know I'm in the minority but we number 2's do exist.

The early 20's are about as free as you'll ever be. It's not a long period of time either.

The best way to open source ideas is simply to publish them. Ideas aren't protectable by copyright so publishing, either in an open-access journal or just a blog, is best.

YC published some ideas recently: http://carbon.ycombinator.com/

P sure there is a massive body of research that has been published by journals like nature.com, etc. I'd start there and scope out what is there/what's not there.

https://www.nature.com/search?q=climate+change

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