Open Thread: July 2021

Welcome! Glad you found us.

Hi,

maybe you find this overview of longtermism interesting if you have not already found it:

Intro to Longtermism | Fin Moorhouse

Hi Brendon :-) 

I'm also really curious about climate change and identifying neglected problems! (Ex: plant fewer trees, better monitor how much CO2 those trees absorb)

I'm kinda just a student though :D I'm from Toronto and I always found myself wondering HOW to act on my desire to impact neglected climate issues. Did you ever feel that way in your career? (I ask because most musicians/writers aren't extremely active with climate change, so you maybe were in a niche community too?)

Your instinct that there isn't a "go-to" place for all data is correct. Not sure about GDPR barriers, but it seems likely that a lot of things became unavailable (or were never available) because the people running those projects just got caught up in other things.

Fortunately, we have mechanisms for funding useful projects that no existing person maintains yet. If you're really interested in sorting through everything and making it available, that might be a good candidate for the EA Infrastructure Fund. And if you're busy with other things, you can even propose that they pay someone else to do this!

I agree. I was having some similar ideas. I'm particularly thinking about data surrounding effective giving choices and attitudes towards 'EA issues'.

Was thinking some tagging of EA-relevant data on kaggle.com, but the Github repo idea seems gret

Welcome! And well done to donate 50% — I only know a few people with ordinary jobs who've done this, and they're all among my favorite individuals. You're doing incredible good.

I feel that the Effective Altruism movement overvalues animal well-being vs human well-being.

The EA movement doesn't really have its own values, aside from a few baseline principles — it's a collection of individuals who agree on the principles but differ on many other things. If you were to ask something like "how valuable is saving a chicken from a year of constant suffering?", people in the movement would give you a vast range of answers.

If you think that a particular estimate you've seen from some EA-aligned organization is wrong, the EA Forum is a great place to make that argument!

 I also feel it ignores that improving human welfare is an avenue to improving animal welfare (people who are struggling don't have room to think about whether their chickens are free range).

It seems unlikely on its face that spending money on human welfare will do much for animals, relative to the incredible efficiency of e.g. cage-free campaigns. I don't think animal advocates ignore these side effects (I think almost everyone would agree that there's a link between economic prosperity and moral circle expansion). But I do think that they'd judge the side effects as very minor in the grand scheme of things. 

If you think the side effects aren't minor... sounds like another potential Forum post!

Note that there's been some conversation about the direct opposite idea — that wealthier people eat more animal products, which means that improving human welfare might lead to additional animal suffering (meat consumption has skyrocketed around the world in recent decades).

I haven't seen people actually use this as a reason not to support human-focused charities — again, this "side effect" is very small — but I think it illustrates how difficult and complicated these questions can be.

Very impressed by your website :-) What did you use to make it? What is the 'artistic motivation' behind creating a mostly realistic investment firm website?

As you say, I personally don't like labels too much. But that doesn't mean you can't learn here :-) Wish you the best with your growth! 

I like your quick cuts and funny style :D I watched the video about how individuals have personal responsibility for climate change. 

What is the inspiration behind your style? How do you have such clean audio? :O

Hey there! 

There is a small and growing group of EAs interested in improving science (see this recent post for example). Let me know if you'd be interested in joining our Slack channel :) 

I'd also be interested in chatting about your research and how you think people in your field can do the most good. Let me know if you'd like to chat 😊

A belated welcome to the Forum! 

You might be interested in Open Philanthropy's grants to organizations working on science (a few of the "Thematic Areas" here seem relevant).

This campaign has also won some support from donors in the community. That page links to some of Let's Fund's other work on improving science (not sure how much will be new to you).

Hello, Willa! I've activated the Markdown Editor for you — not sure why it wasn't working. (I'm the lead moderator/admin here.)

There's a lot of stuff on the Forum. Perhaps the best way to start out is to browse the top posts of all time and read whatever looks interesting. I don't love all the posts on that list, but they're a reasonable sample of the topics that get a lot of interest here.

The natural book recommendation would be Toby Ord's The Precipice if you haven't read it yet; I've liked the bits I've read, and reviews from outside of EA have been solid.

I've never interacted with the Less Wrong community :D Any tips on ways to be engaged there?

Welcome Madhav, it's great to have you on the Forum!

I also recommend this ProPublica Report!

Just because I'm excited this is being discussed here...this Kate Aronoff article might be good further reading.

The traditional advice here is that one call or email to your local representative is worth far more than a vote, such that you get much more value for your time by communicating in that way.

You can also try to find organizations that have a record of successfully advocating for good policy and try to support them as a donor or volunteer.

Unfortunately, there's not much (if any) existing EA writing on Canadian policy (just the US and EU), so you'll have to do your own research. But you might still learn something from the approach of organizations like Founders Pledge, who have done some good writing on climate policy. (See the Research Reports on this page.)

If you find any Canadian policy organizations that seem especially strong, consider writing about them on the Forum! There are plenty of other Canadians in the movement who might appreciate it (and people from other countries — we're open to supporting charities anywhere in the world).

*****

Also, if your perception of the Green Party is that they are more focused on a consistent message than on actually reducing climate change (which an anti-nuclear position implies), that's a reasonable thing to believe. Most political parties work that way.

A good book (maybe a little outdated by now, still beautifully written) on impact-driven climate policy is Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air. Also, it's free to read online!

On a semi-related note, Peter Singer appeared on the podcast of a Canadian MP, which I thought was pretty cool.

Hi, I would recommend you read Citizen's Guide to Climate Success by Mark Jaccard. The author is a Canadian economists who has advised many regional and national governments. Since he's Canadian, the book also talks about his experience with Canadian politicians. Here's a review I wrote -- https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gtNxRnjLtZrqfskb7/book-recommendation-the-citizen-s-guide-to-climate-success You can just read the 1st and the last chapters if the book is too long for you.