Can Indie Hackers help fix the climate?
https://fixathon.io
A couple of months ago I started to take the climate emergency seriously. Instead of just making a few lifestyle changes I decided to use my skill set to help with the issue.
This led me to launch The Climate Fixathon (https://fixathon.io) — an online hackathon to help fix the climate.
Since getting involved in this I’ve discovered that a lot of people are enthusiastic about our potential to have a positive impact on the climate issue. However, there are many who think software can’t make much of a difference. They believe we’re wasting our time, time that could be spent doing something else that helps prevent climate breakdown.
So I ask, do you think Indie Hackers can help fix the climate? If so how? If not why?
#ask-ih #climatechange
I think Climate Change is so massive that we need to do everything we can, regardless of field :) It's easy to think we can't contribute anything in the face of a huge issue, but software can help show people how/give people the tools to do more (e.g. @blunicorn with Target 2030). Software doesn't always feel like the most direct way to tackle Climate Change, but it's a really powerful tool, for reaching people, conveying information, and making sense of a complex problem. The more I think about the issue the more I see ways that software can help out, big and small.
I also think many of the approaches of IH/bootstrappers are really useful here - trying many approaches quickly, seeing what works, building the numbers - building a movement is a lot like building a company/business (I guess you know that better than me what with running the Impact Makers community!).
I think the reason IHer/Bootstrapping techniques are so important, and possibly effective, is that we don't have time to waste. We need lots of different groups all quickly firing up projects and trying to validate, find an audience and begin powering the changes we need asap 😇
Thanks for the input, I agree completely :)
There's definitely something to be said for just trying to make something that helps. In the process, you'll learn a lot and be better positioned to help further be it with software or otherwise.
I was at a PHP conference this year where Linus Torvalds (EDIT: should have been Rasmus Lerdorf) (creator of PHP) had a talk. He had a slide pointing out how much the carbon footprint of the PHP community would go down by just updating everyones PHP version to the latest one (because newer = more performant).
Ah, interesting would love to see that presentation or the data!
Here are his slides (use the down button on the saving the planet slide) : http://talks.php.net/bnl19#/impact
Awesome thanks :)
Sorry to nitpick here but PHP was created by Rasmus Lerdorf.
You are totally right. I mixed up their names...