I’m not convinced that climate was a miss by effective altruism. It seemed much less neglected by more mainstream grantmakers, so I think it made sense for EA initially to focus on more neglected and more important issues.
I do think climate change should still be explored by EAs though to see if it can be competitive with global health and development opportunities. I’m currently much less convinced by the longtermist angle on climate change, though I still think that should be explored further in case I am wrong.
In terms of what is neglected, I have some thoughts, though not with enough confidence to make an actual “answer” to this question (instead just a comment):
I think traditional animal work (e.g., The Humane League) is still potentially underfunded by EA, especially compared to longtermism and global health/development.
I think there could be some smaller-scale opportunities in global health and development that are cost-effective per dollar but not as scalable, so they don’t get picked up by scalability-focused grantmakers.
Work on invertebrates and more esoteric neglected animal work was really underinvested in prior to Rethink Priorities, but it seems like the issue right now is more finding talented people that want to work on the problem rather than money (that is, it seems really neglected by talent and thus currently has very minimal opportunities for spending).
I’m not convinced that climate was a miss by effective altruism. It seemed much less neglected by more mainstream grantmakers, so I think it made sense for EA initially to focus on more neglected and more important issues.
I do think climate change should still be explored by EAs though to see if it can be competitive with global health and development opportunities. I’m currently much less convinced by the longtermist angle on climate change, though I still think that should be explored further in case I am wrong.
In terms of what is neglected, I have some thoughts, though not with enough confidence to make an actual “answer” to this question (instead just a comment):
I think traditional animal work (e.g., The Humane League) is still potentially underfunded by EA, especially compared to longtermism and global health/development.
I think there could be some smaller-scale opportunities in global health and development that are cost-effective per dollar but not as scalable, so they don’t get picked up by scalability-focused grantmakers.
Work on invertebrates and more esoteric neglected animal work was really underinvested in prior to Rethink Priorities, but it seems like the issue right now is more finding talented people that want to work on the problem rather than money (that is, it seems really neglected by talent and thus currently has very minimal opportunities for spending).
Disclaimer: Just my personal opinion.