I agree that the environmental movement is extremely poor at optimisation. This being said, there are a number of very large philanthropists and charities who do take a sensible approach to climate change, so I don’t think this is a case in which EAs could march in and totally change everything. Much of Climateworks’ giving takes a broadly EA approach, and they oversee the giving of numerous multi-billion dollar foundations. Gates also does some sensible work on the energy innovation side. Nevertheless, most money in the space does seem to be spent very badly, e.g. on opposing nuclear power. This consideration might even make the environmental movement net negative wrt climate, though I haven’t crunched any numbers on that.
I would also add that sensible EA answers in this space face substantial opposition from the envionmental movement. I think a rational analysis argues in favour of advocating for nuclear and carbon capture, for energy innovation in general, and for financial incentives for preventing deforestation. All of these things are opposed quite strongly by different constituencies in the environmental movement. Maybe the one thing most people can agree on is carbon pricing, but that is hard to get through for other reasons
I think this is spot on—the fact that climate change as a cause area is saturated in aggregate terms masks the fact that there a number of both important and neglected (if not necessarily tractable) initiatives that could benefit from an increase in funding and talent. Nuclear and carbon capture advocacy are both good examples. Clean and plant-based meat has nice synergy with animal welfare. I think there’s also probably a role for “better” journalism to counteract some of the less helpful, Malthusian narratives that seem to dominate the media right now, at least in the UK and US.
I agree that the environmental movement is extremely poor at optimisation. This being said, there are a number of very large philanthropists and charities who do take a sensible approach to climate change, so I don’t think this is a case in which EAs could march in and totally change everything. Much of Climateworks’ giving takes a broadly EA approach, and they oversee the giving of numerous multi-billion dollar foundations. Gates also does some sensible work on the energy innovation side. Nevertheless, most money in the space does seem to be spent very badly, e.g. on opposing nuclear power. This consideration might even make the environmental movement net negative wrt climate, though I haven’t crunched any numbers on that.
I would also add that sensible EA answers in this space face substantial opposition from the envionmental movement. I think a rational analysis argues in favour of advocating for nuclear and carbon capture, for energy innovation in general, and for financial incentives for preventing deforestation. All of these things are opposed quite strongly by different constituencies in the environmental movement. Maybe the one thing most people can agree on is carbon pricing, but that is hard to get through for other reasons
I think this is spot on—the fact that climate change as a cause area is saturated in aggregate terms masks the fact that there a number of both important and neglected (if not necessarily tractable) initiatives that could benefit from an increase in funding and talent. Nuclear and carbon capture advocacy are both good examples. Clean and plant-based meat has nice synergy with animal welfare. I think there’s also probably a role for “better” journalism to counteract some of the less helpful, Malthusian narratives that seem to dominate the media right now, at least in the UK and US.