I especially appreciate the “causal story” section of the post! I’m not sure I fully believe the explanation*, but it’s always good to propose one, rather than handwaving away the reasons that a good cause would be so neglected (an error I frequently see outside of EA, and occasionally in EA-aligned work on other new cause areas).
*The part that rings truest to me is “no ready channels for donation”. Ignorance seems more likely than deliberate neglect; I can picture many large environmental donors being asked about coal seam fires and reacting with “huh, never thought about it” or “is that actually a problem?”
I don’t have much to contribute but I appreciated this writeup – I like it when EAs explore cause areas like this.
I especially appreciate the “causal story” section of the post! I’m not sure I fully believe the explanation*, but it’s always good to propose one, rather than handwaving away the reasons that a good cause would be so neglected (an error I frequently see outside of EA, and occasionally in EA-aligned work on other new cause areas).
*The part that rings truest to me is “no ready channels for donation”. Ignorance seems more likely than deliberate neglect; I can picture many large environmental donors being asked about coal seam fires and reacting with “huh, never thought about it” or “is that actually a problem?”