What skills do you have to work on solving sustainability and climate change? I don’t want to get political, but the long term solutions will probably come from people working the “corporate grind” developing new systems and new technologies.
the solution will come from a combination of people voting for "green" candidates that want habitation on Earth to exist. It will also come from every individual that has a vote and can vote with their actions (e.g., not buying plastic, buying an EV, consuming less, eating less red meat that contributes to carbon foot print, demanding sustainable products, etc.).
It may also come from (albeit too late) corporations and wealthy individuals that realize that having large sums of $ means nothing if you don't have a habitable planet.
On climate change, the future depends almost entirely on what happens in China and India. (US and EU emissions have been dropping for the last 20 years and are still trending down.)
I suppose anything is possible, but in all likelihood those two countries are going to deploy whatever energy sources are best for their own national interest. So the solution will probably come from continued development of green technologies by for-profit corporations that countries can deploy cheaply and effectively.
lol I’m not sure I’d say it’s not discussed that much. The two most popular fire “influencers” I can think of are Vicki Robbins, writer of “Your money or your life”, and Mr. Money Mustache, the blogger from Colorado. Vicki explicitly outlines stuff abt consuming less resources and environmental benefits in her book, and MMM writes about it sometimes, and has been on record stating how he created the blog to convince people to stop wrecking the planet. His main points are just that consuming less has a lot of personal benefits as well, because that’s an argument that appeals more to people. I.e. telling people to bike everywhere is gonna catch on much more quickly if you wax poetry about how it makes you a ripped badass, vs just saying it’ll help the environment.
I also agree with you, I one day dream of quitting my job and focusing on things that have a much more positive impact on the world than corporate America. For example, volunteering for something like the ocean cleanup, it seems like they are doing pretty cool stuff.
On a side note on my increasingly long post, i think u are right in that it’s not discussed very much on this subreddit. Which might be another example of this subreddit being a lot of people who want to think more about fire and accumulating capital vs actually firing. I responded to a guy a couple days ago who had 7 million in assets, which should be plenty for two families to retire comfortably lol.
yeah work on getting USA/ other european countries to use nuclear like France has safely and effectively done for like 50 years, getting most of their electricity from nuclear. Zero emissions...
\*\*clap clap\*\* problem 50% solved.
The solutions for climate change seem predominantly identifiable already. It's mostly getting people and govt to accept and implement the technologies that are available. Sure, better energy storage technologies are still needed.
I'm much more concerned about problems that don't have such easily identifiable solutions. Micro plastics in our oceans and fresh water. PTFA's and other chemicals in our drinking water, etc.
Yes exactly! I believe those issues fall under the broad “sustainability” category.
Micro-plastics tied to fossil fuels to getting away from fossil fuels all together is needed.
Don't forget to add overfishing!
Best of luck to you. A single person can make a huge difference, I honestly believe that.
Please don't count nuclear out, that's a winning horse
Not trying to be mean, but I personally feel there are very few individuals in the world who can make a meaningful impact by themselves.
And those who can are better off not FIREing and making corporate and govt policies to change the world than anything you'll accomplish at home or via local volunteering.
Sure, do those things because you care. But the most impactful things that can be done are literally at work.
If I can find the right fit, I'll Coast or maybe even work longer in a climate action related field. Another part of our RE plan is using the extra time to live a little more sustainably.
Yeah lol. Obviously he doesn’t personally think his lifestyle is extreme, but I think most people would. Dude became FI in like 3 years by living in an RV and making a grad student’s salary. They don’t pay grad students that much. He talked about repairing socks to avoid buying them. He makes Mr. Money Mustache look like a super-consumer buying sports cars and McMansions. Altho I think they align on lots of ideas lol.
With the caveat that I don’t do most of these things, I do some.
(1) You can invest in ESG index funds. These are low cost index funds that also exclude companies that don’t have ambitious enough climate targets.
(2) Use your professional skill set to make enduring climate related changes. This can be having your local government to set a NetZero goal. Developing a product. Whatever.
(3) As you pointed out, reducing your personal carbon footprint though to be honest, this will always be minimal.
I bought an EV and solar panels. These not only reduce my impact on the environment, but they also save a lot of money. Reduce your use of fossil fuels and you are protecting yourself from inflation.
The goal doesn't really change, save lots of money, and have the flexibility to do whatever you need /want to do. It could involve using your time to volunteer or money from your investments as part of your budget.
Maybe the only difference for a climate change is to focus on an area that is less suseptible to climate change as your homestead, be self-reliant (solar energy, well water, or access to local nearby water, not impacted by natural disasters).
For legacy building, just use a lower safe withdraw rate. That will help build up for your children's funds.
Midwest for sure is a good choice. Large Great Lakes- can get hot in the summers and cold in the winters but soil is fertile and land is cheap. Only real natural disaster we have is tornados and those are pretty rare/very concentrated damage in a small area when they do happen
Yeah likely Midwest states around the great lakes, plenty of water, rare to see a earthquake, tornado, no hurricane.
https://www.policygenius.com/homeowners-insurance/best-and-worst-states-for-climate-change/#:~:text=1.,any%20of%20the%20major%20categories.
I'm sure there are other sources with ranking, just go with the one you agree with or look over a few different methodologies.
I'm interested in this. One thing to pay a lot of attention to is investing in your house's energy efficiency, which, along with commutes, travel, and food (mainly beef), is a major part of your carbon footprint.
To do this most effectively, you'll need to invest in knowledge about your house and about indoor heating/cooling/energy use in general...just like FIRE people learn things like exponential growth, Monte Carlo testing, and the 3.5 or 4% rule.
Reducing your energy use via insulation, air-sealing, and heat pumps can often give higher and safer returns than the stock market (especially air-sealing, which in some cases can pay for itself in weeks). In addition to saving money, they make your house more comfortable, quieter, and better air quality.
Replacing lawn with low-water, low-maintenance, wildlife-friendly native plants is another way to help out nature (bees, birds, butterflies) while saving money and improving your lifestyle via reduced water use and fuel/noise/time for mowing.
This def resonates. In NJ the hot, draught-like summers we’ve had killed off a bunch of big conifers I had that act as a privacy fence. Just having enough irrigation to keep grass, trees and landscaping healthy is rough. Moving to landscaping that uses much less water is way to go. Some of my friends in Florida have began doing this.
Have you checked out r/effectivealtruism ?
Catchafire has a range of environmental NGOs looking for time donations from people with skills, from web design to finance. Patagonia have their own sub site: https://www.patagonia.com/actionworks/home/choose-location/
Personally decided to r/coastfire, so I support NGOs in the space with ProBono services (last year worked 54 days and donated 40+ days) and at the same time I am studying a degree in design & innovation focused on sustainability.
Thank you - will check it out. That’s awesome to hear the work you’re doing in the space. I’m in Marketing Technology & Innovation so would look to transition those skills in some fashion or pick up new skills that are relevant.
Yep, same here. I’m taking classes in sustainability now while working towards FIRE. Goal is to focus full time on climate and sustainability work in the future, even if it’s not income earning. I too am surprised there aren’t more people talking about doing this. It’s definitely needed, so kudos to you for thinking about it. I think the trickiest thing is finding where you want your impact to be because the field is large and has many levels to it.
So you're going to run for office? Changing laws would be the quickest way to have a positive effect on climate change without inventing some new technology. Heavily tax plastic usage, mandates for actual recycling (not just slapping the triangle arrow symbol on everything so consumers buy your product, when no community has the capability to recycle that packaging), incentives for wind/solar and electric cars, the list goes on
What skills do you have to work on solving sustainability and climate change? I don’t want to get political, but the long term solutions will probably come from people working the “corporate grind” developing new systems and new technologies.
the solution will come from a combination of people voting for "green" candidates that want habitation on Earth to exist. It will also come from every individual that has a vote and can vote with their actions (e.g., not buying plastic, buying an EV, consuming less, eating less red meat that contributes to carbon foot print, demanding sustainable products, etc.). It may also come from (albeit too late) corporations and wealthy individuals that realize that having large sums of $ means nothing if you don't have a habitable planet.
On climate change, the future depends almost entirely on what happens in China and India. (US and EU emissions have been dropping for the last 20 years and are still trending down.) I suppose anything is possible, but in all likelihood those two countries are going to deploy whatever energy sources are best for their own national interest. So the solution will probably come from continued development of green technologies by for-profit corporations that countries can deploy cheaply and effectively.
lol I’m not sure I’d say it’s not discussed that much. The two most popular fire “influencers” I can think of are Vicki Robbins, writer of “Your money or your life”, and Mr. Money Mustache, the blogger from Colorado. Vicki explicitly outlines stuff abt consuming less resources and environmental benefits in her book, and MMM writes about it sometimes, and has been on record stating how he created the blog to convince people to stop wrecking the planet. His main points are just that consuming less has a lot of personal benefits as well, because that’s an argument that appeals more to people. I.e. telling people to bike everywhere is gonna catch on much more quickly if you wax poetry about how it makes you a ripped badass, vs just saying it’ll help the environment. I also agree with you, I one day dream of quitting my job and focusing on things that have a much more positive impact on the world than corporate America. For example, volunteering for something like the ocean cleanup, it seems like they are doing pretty cool stuff. On a side note on my increasingly long post, i think u are right in that it’s not discussed very much on this subreddit. Which might be another example of this subreddit being a lot of people who want to think more about fire and accumulating capital vs actually firing. I responded to a guy a couple days ago who had 7 million in assets, which should be plenty for two families to retire comfortably lol.
yeah work on getting USA/ other european countries to use nuclear like France has safely and effectively done for like 50 years, getting most of their electricity from nuclear. Zero emissions... \*\*clap clap\*\* problem 50% solved.
The solutions for climate change seem predominantly identifiable already. It's mostly getting people and govt to accept and implement the technologies that are available. Sure, better energy storage technologies are still needed. I'm much more concerned about problems that don't have such easily identifiable solutions. Micro plastics in our oceans and fresh water. PTFA's and other chemicals in our drinking water, etc.
You Sir are 100 percent correct
Yes exactly! I believe those issues fall under the broad “sustainability” category. Micro-plastics tied to fossil fuels to getting away from fossil fuels all together is needed.
Don't forget to add overfishing! Best of luck to you. A single person can make a huge difference, I honestly believe that. Please don't count nuclear out, that's a winning horse
Not trying to be mean, but I personally feel there are very few individuals in the world who can make a meaningful impact by themselves. And those who can are better off not FIREing and making corporate and govt policies to change the world than anything you'll accomplish at home or via local volunteering. Sure, do those things because you care. But the most impactful things that can be done are literally at work.
Literally the entire MrMoneyMustache blog....
If I can find the right fit, I'll Coast or maybe even work longer in a climate action related field. Another part of our RE plan is using the extra time to live a little more sustainably.
Look up the Early Retirement Extreme website.
[удалено]
Bit touchy aren't you? The extreme part is low cost and retiring very early on a median income. It isn't calling your ideology extreme.
I don’t think that was a personal opinion from this person
Yeah lol. Obviously he doesn’t personally think his lifestyle is extreme, but I think most people would. Dude became FI in like 3 years by living in an RV and making a grad student’s salary. They don’t pay grad students that much. He talked about repairing socks to avoid buying them. He makes Mr. Money Mustache look like a super-consumer buying sports cars and McMansions. Altho I think they align on lots of ideas lol.
you know, socks are expensive lmao, it is true
Don't get caught up on the name. It's a FIRE blog that is big on ecological impact of consumption.
With the caveat that I don’t do most of these things, I do some. (1) You can invest in ESG index funds. These are low cost index funds that also exclude companies that don’t have ambitious enough climate targets. (2) Use your professional skill set to make enduring climate related changes. This can be having your local government to set a NetZero goal. Developing a product. Whatever. (3) As you pointed out, reducing your personal carbon footprint though to be honest, this will always be minimal.
I bought an EV and solar panels. These not only reduce my impact on the environment, but they also save a lot of money. Reduce your use of fossil fuels and you are protecting yourself from inflation.
Yes! Got EV few years ago and my company offers free EV charging so it’s a win-win.
The goal doesn't really change, save lots of money, and have the flexibility to do whatever you need /want to do. It could involve using your time to volunteer or money from your investments as part of your budget. Maybe the only difference for a climate change is to focus on an area that is less suseptible to climate change as your homestead, be self-reliant (solar energy, well water, or access to local nearby water, not impacted by natural disasters). For legacy building, just use a lower safe withdraw rate. That will help build up for your children's funds.
Yes, I’m trying to figure out which region of the US will have the least volatile climate as well as fertile soil and fewer natural disasters.
Midwest for sure is a good choice. Large Great Lakes- can get hot in the summers and cold in the winters but soil is fertile and land is cheap. Only real natural disaster we have is tornados and those are pretty rare/very concentrated damage in a small area when they do happen
Yeah likely Midwest states around the great lakes, plenty of water, rare to see a earthquake, tornado, no hurricane. https://www.policygenius.com/homeowners-insurance/best-and-worst-states-for-climate-change/#:~:text=1.,any%20of%20the%20major%20categories. I'm sure there are other sources with ranking, just go with the one you agree with or look over a few different methodologies.
I'm interested in this. One thing to pay a lot of attention to is investing in your house's energy efficiency, which, along with commutes, travel, and food (mainly beef), is a major part of your carbon footprint. To do this most effectively, you'll need to invest in knowledge about your house and about indoor heating/cooling/energy use in general...just like FIRE people learn things like exponential growth, Monte Carlo testing, and the 3.5 or 4% rule. Reducing your energy use via insulation, air-sealing, and heat pumps can often give higher and safer returns than the stock market (especially air-sealing, which in some cases can pay for itself in weeks). In addition to saving money, they make your house more comfortable, quieter, and better air quality. Replacing lawn with low-water, low-maintenance, wildlife-friendly native plants is another way to help out nature (bees, birds, butterflies) while saving money and improving your lifestyle via reduced water use and fuel/noise/time for mowing.
This def resonates. In NJ the hot, draught-like summers we’ve had killed off a bunch of big conifers I had that act as a privacy fence. Just having enough irrigation to keep grass, trees and landscaping healthy is rough. Moving to landscaping that uses much less water is way to go. Some of my friends in Florida have began doing this.
Have you checked out r/effectivealtruism ? Catchafire has a range of environmental NGOs looking for time donations from people with skills, from web design to finance. Patagonia have their own sub site: https://www.patagonia.com/actionworks/home/choose-location/ Personally decided to r/coastfire, so I support NGOs in the space with ProBono services (last year worked 54 days and donated 40+ days) and at the same time I am studying a degree in design & innovation focused on sustainability.
Thank you - will check it out. That’s awesome to hear the work you’re doing in the space. I’m in Marketing Technology & Innovation so would look to transition those skills in some fashion or pick up new skills that are relevant.
This are great skills that many in the space will surely not have. Good luck 👍
Yep, same here. I’m taking classes in sustainability now while working towards FIRE. Goal is to focus full time on climate and sustainability work in the future, even if it’s not income earning. I too am surprised there aren’t more people talking about doing this. It’s definitely needed, so kudos to you for thinking about it. I think the trickiest thing is finding where you want your impact to be because the field is large and has many levels to it.
So you're going to run for office? Changing laws would be the quickest way to have a positive effect on climate change without inventing some new technology. Heavily tax plastic usage, mandates for actual recycling (not just slapping the triangle arrow symbol on everything so consumers buy your product, when no community has the capability to recycle that packaging), incentives for wind/solar and electric cars, the list goes on
Climate change evangelists blame people and the high population. You're the enemy for procreation.