This post is incredibly detailed and informative. Thank you for writing it.
I work in a climate-adjacent field and I agree that climate change is an important area for some of the world’s altruistically-minded people to focus on. Similar to you, I prefer to focus on problems that will clearly affect people in my lifetime or shortly afterwards.
However, even though I’m concerned about and even work on climate change, I donate to the Against Malaria Foundation. When I looked at the most recent IPCC report, one of the biggest health impacts listed was an increase in malaria. If we could reduce or eradicate malaria, we could also improve lives under climate change.
If at some point you’re considering writing a follow up post, I’d be interested in a direct comparison of some climate donations or careers with some global health donations or careers. Given your ethical point of view, I don’t think your posts are likely to change the minds of people who are focused on the long term future, but you might change my mind about what I should focus on.
As a side comment, I think it can make perfect sense to work on some area and donate to another one. The questions “what can I do with my money to have maximal impact” and “how do I use my skill set to have maximal impact” are very different, and I think it’s totally fine if the answers land on different “cause areas” (whatever that means).
When I looked at the most recent IPCC report, one of the biggest health impacts listed was an increase in malaria. If we could reduce or eradicate malaria, we could also improve lives under climate change.
As I mention in my post, the issue with this is that you are fighting an uphill battle to tackle malaria while climate change continues to expand the territory of malaria and other tropical diseases.
I’d be interested in a direct comparison of some climate donations or careers with some global health donations or careers.
I have previously written a post titled Review of Climate Cost-Effectiveness Analyses which reviews prior attempts to do this kind of comparison. As I mention in my post above, my conclusion was that it is close to impossible to make this kind of comparison due to the very limited evidence available. However, the best that I think can be said is that action on climate change is likely to be at least as effective as action on global health, and it is plausible that action on climate change is actually more effective.
This post is incredibly detailed and informative. Thank you for writing it.
I work in a climate-adjacent field and I agree that climate change is an important area for some of the world’s altruistically-minded people to focus on. Similar to you, I prefer to focus on problems that will clearly affect people in my lifetime or shortly afterwards.
However, even though I’m concerned about and even work on climate change, I donate to the Against Malaria Foundation. When I looked at the most recent IPCC report, one of the biggest health impacts listed was an increase in malaria. If we could reduce or eradicate malaria, we could also improve lives under climate change.
If at some point you’re considering writing a follow up post, I’d be interested in a direct comparison of some climate donations or careers with some global health donations or careers. Given your ethical point of view, I don’t think your posts are likely to change the minds of people who are focused on the long term future, but you might change my mind about what I should focus on.
As a side comment, I think it can make perfect sense to work on some area and donate to another one. The questions “what can I do with my money to have maximal impact” and “how do I use my skill set to have maximal impact” are very different, and I think it’s totally fine if the answers land on different “cause areas” (whatever that means).
Thanks for your comments.
As I mention in my post, the issue with this is that you are fighting an uphill battle to tackle malaria while climate change continues to expand the territory of malaria and other tropical diseases.
I have previously written a post titled Review of Climate Cost-Effectiveness Analyses which reviews prior attempts to do this kind of comparison. As I mention in my post above, my conclusion was that it is close to impossible to make this kind of comparison due to the very limited evidence available. However, the best that I think can be said is that action on climate change is likely to be at least as effective as action on global health, and it is plausible that action on climate change is actually more effective.