While I would love to see a more detailed investigation on this issue, my first impressions are that:
- Current EA material (80k, OpenPhil) seem adequate at explaining why climate change is usually not a big priority area inside the EA community, while being sufficiently didactic and approachable for most people.
- The material might not be sufficient for a specific group of people: people with experience working on climate change research, activism or public policy.
I'm particularly worried about that last point because I believe there's a lot of amazing talent currently working on climate change which have a greater fit for working in other causes.
In the same way, reaching activists or influencers working on climate change might be a highly effective way to reach similarly aligned groups of people.
Anecdotally, I've had climate activists ask me for introductory materials to EA after receiving conflicting information on it, and I would have loved to point out a specific resource better tailored to them.
Edit: Another point might be that we might emphasize too much on x-risk when talking about climate change. I feel like this does a disservice to many readers, especially considering that neglectedness seems like a more general counterargument for working in climate change.
Thanks Agustin,
I appreciate the clarification and this kind of detail ("people with experience working on climate change research, activism or public policy" as opposed to others).
Based on this thread, I think we'd be looking for a document that meets the following criteria:
- Extends/Summarises current EA material on climate change so that it's clear that EA has made serious attempts to assess it.
- A nuanced explanation for the ITN framework, explaining how much of the work on climate change is not-neglected, and which observation
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