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Hello all, I've known about Effective Altruism for years, but have decided it’s time to get involved.
I apologize ahead of time for my overall lack of knowledge about the breadth of ideas and suggestions that are entertained, But I personally know that thick skins and good faith arguments can produced refined concepts. As any group who has sat down and hammered out homebrew dnd rules can attest. (a joke and also not a joke)
I have taken a short, surely inadequate, I preeminently grant, examination of some core ideas and I believe my suggestion is worth at least, an explanation based dismissal. With that I offer my case for an Effective Altruism program.
I seek to combat climate change, extreme poverty, and eventually a myriad of other dire situations, under a single framework.
step 1. Fund 6 million usd
2. Install solar panels and home battery systems on residences and apartments whose occupants, have applied for and been accepted into the program. One county/region at a time. I'm arguing the concept, but I'll provide a figure as a starting point to be argued up or down. Per home cost estimated at $35,000-$70,000. ($20,000 for 30 kWh panel and $1,000 per battery 1kWh capacity. $5,000 per install) (2 panels and 25kHw battery capacity for 4-person home)
3. Sell the solar electricity to the program participants, at a subsidized rate of up to "half off" of their current local kWh price.
4. In addition to this source of income, the panels will also sell excess solar energy back to the grid, after filling the attached battery for the day.
5. These funds can be directed entirely to the desired effective relief, on a monthly basis. Marketing the program to potential residents could be based on the intended charity to increase willingness to participate with lower subsidies for themselves, and could also generate more engaged effective altruism members.
6. Calculating total proceeds and overall impact: no expertise here, but I can surmise some of the factors. Including, but probably not limited to, Local, current and projected, kWh price (this is the big one and is seemingly readily available info), local climate, the amount of the solar energy subsidy offered, investment dispersal between panels and batteries, and ensuring that those being provided solar energy, were previously receiving polluting energy.
7.Again, I'll stake a starting figure for sake of encouraging discourse, from those with greater understanding. After subsidies and assuming 15 cents per kWh(expensive estimation for the states), I’ll say 300,000 usd per year. I'm not showing my math here cause I didn't do any worth writing down. concept here.
8. By virtue of the axiom "a penny saved is a penny earned" this program seems to me, to be virulent in a positive way. Again, sorry if these arguments have been covered, I humbly accept all good faith arguments and positions.
"A carbon molecule not released into the atmosphere, that would have been released without your mitigation is a carbon molecule removed from the atmosphere.”
9. Calculate the dollar value of 1 carbon molecule removed from the atmosphere.
10. factor that into the long-term estimates, of the value of this program.
Honest, good faith question, does this idea fit with longtermism?
I know persuasion isn't important here, but I offer these heart string tugs to suggest that this program could be used to create an informed and engaged population, who go on to perpetuate similar good work. If I could speak to those suffering from plights, great and small, I would offer this statement, in humility for all those with power.
"I wish I could say that we’re just now dropping the ball, on short term relief, to invest in a system that will hold the ball for generations to come, but the truth is we haven’t ever held the ball, in a truly adequate way. I ask forgiveness on the world’s behalf as we diligently plant the seeds of prosperity, that will lift up all peoples, given time to bear fruit.”
I don't have time to review all of this, but I'm glad you've written it all out! You should make sure to bookmark or otherwise save this link to your comment, so that you can access this text in case you want to explain the idea to anyone else.
In my role, I see lots of people propose very big ideas. Things to keep in mind about these:
- The more things need to go right for an idea to work, the less likely it is to work. Consider which elements of your plans are flexible, and be ready to adjust them. This especially applies to working with relatively inflexibl
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