Ask HN: How can I fight climate change by writing code? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How can I fight climate change by writing code?

10 pointsleather15 comments

Because of the age old warning about premature optimization, a lot of software that runs critical parts of the internet infrastructure is dreadfully slow. You could pick something that is deployed on millions of servers, speed it up 20%, and the win would be significant.

An example is the progress bar used in `npm` during install operations. Someone discovered that it was extremely wasteful of resources. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10974929

Little things like that add up. You could do even more by focusing on optimizing overall resource usage rather than just wall clock time. Perhaps even write software to automatically optimize others' software.

You want to find a community that is open to change and optimization, though - some maintainers are too busy or are afraid of change.

Support and advocate work-from-home / remote work.

This could mean convincing your employer / your clients to switch to a permanent work-from-home policy (and helping them to implement that policy) or creating software that enables people to work remotely.

'sudo shutdown now' could save some energy. Unless you can work with the countries causing the real damage, then it's mostly going to make you feel good and not really help.

Using a programming language with a better carbon footprint. Go native as much as you can.

Assembly, C, C++, Rust are some examples.

JavaScript, Python and other interpreted or GC languages require more power.

We've also have been given some fantastic new compiled languages in the last 10 years that in my opinion are as productive as the higher level ones you mention, in some cases more due to the powerful type systems. I'm a huge fan of Swift, Rust and Kotlin Native but there are many more to suit anyones taste. I've also found keeping my hardware for a longer time period forces me to write faster software and is a better approximation of what users are experiencing when they run my apps than the latest top range workstation.

This is a very subjective idea and is not always true. Ymmv

It's extensively tested on various benchmarks and the programming languages I've mentioned are the best performing, based on electricity consumption.

Ymmv. Use what's right for your program. Having to download and run an application for something you can do in a second in a browser or terminal isn't saving power.

How about some indirect ways? This is what I've done.

Use the money you make to decrease your carbon footprint: Operating an electric car, buying or building a net-zero home, etc. Work from home. Get involved in local government.

A guide on how deep learning and IoT could save civilization: https://hacktheplanet.substack.com/p/pulling-the-climate-swi...

Hey!Thanks for sharing a link to my (new) blog. As I'm still in very early stages, I'm trying to capture as much feedback as possible -- if you would be so inclined, I would love to hear any of your thoughts / reflections on either the topic or my writing on anantk147@gmail.com

Find a job at a company that is in the wind or solar industry writing software for them.

Use a pencil.

I'm curious if this is actually used less energy. Compared to buying a new computer, it's clearly better.

But given that someone most likely already owns a computer, does the marginal amount of energy required to operate the computer exceed the energy impact of extracting resources/manufacturing/transporting pencil and paper?

If they have a computer, they likely already have stationary and pens.

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