AI Use Note: Main body text entirely human written. Claude (Opus 4.8) helped develop models of animal life histories in the appendix.
Cross-posted from Good Structures.
Executive Summary
* Animal advocates sometimes make claims like “there are X of this animal...
“How long have you been v*g*n?”
This is one of the most common icebreakers at animal protection events. It’s a baseline assumption, and it mostly holds true: if you’re out advocating for animals not to be tortured or abused, realistically these days you are v**n, or close. And it makes for good conversation. It seems fairly safe to assume when you meet strangers.
But this assumption is hurting the movement in a way which we don’t always notice: someone new comes into the sp...
Summary
Back in November 2023 I posted here to launch Spiro and raise our first $198k. Two and a half years later this is an update and a fundraiser for the next step.
The short version: we've now reached over-5,900 people with TB preventive medicine, including over 3,000 children under five years old. Our early results have held up well an...
A bird's eye view on why donating to relieve the earthquake's damage to Venezuela is one of the best causes to donate to.
I have seen the photos, tens of complete buildings shattered to pieces, more than 150+ reported dead, and a lot more buried without clue to whether they're dead or alive, and on top of that, a poor, government in crisis country has to handle that. When a natural catastrophe happens to a country like that, your money goes a long way in saving lives.
Yes, I have seen the pictures too... it is awful and moving. Luckily, it is already being well-funded (as is common in such situations). The USA alone for example has pledged $150M in aid. Therefore, I doubt that it is one of the best causes to donate to for impartial scope-sensitive impact. If someone is seriously moved by this (as with other causes), I would encourage them to donate to other causes that are more neglected and use these experiences as a way to stay in touch with why they're donating.
Thank you for the data on the US government's pledge.
Any tips on how to encourage that without discouraging the intent on donating to any decent cause? I recall that most people are usually not on the donating business and therefore any donation to a decent cause might be better than, say, buying unnecesary fast-fashion clothing.
"your money goes a long way" do you have any numbers on this? think that we have to compare to scalable interventions in preventive health, for instance, the bar is quite high
Thank you. It was simply a quick take to share my intuitions, comparing natural catastrophes between rich and poor countries. I don't have actual numbers around how far a dollar goes in situations like this, and I'm not confident that calculations on such sudden issues can be made that quickly. Do you have any data on the latter?
I have no data on catastrophe relief, and no idea besides googling a bunch to make myself an idea.
For scalable interventions in preventive health, there are some typical EA examples like:
- bednets to prevent malaria
- seasonal chemoprevention for malaria
- vitamin A supplementation
- vaccination incentives
I personally don't have any data on the latter, but GiveWell has done a bunch of practical research aggregation / outreach, for instance here:
https://www.givewell.org/how-much-does-it-cost-to-save-a-life