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Disclaimer: This blog post focuses on a new piece of research from Rethink Priorities. I was not involved with the funding or execution of this research, and therefore write this piece merely as a consumer. However, I am the Executive Director of Giving Green and a board member of Rethink Priorities, and acknowledge that these affiliations may bias my...
I am writing up two charity ideas I’ve wanted to investigate, but haven’t been able to, in the hopes someone will investigate them further. If you end up investigating either, I'd be most interested to see what conclusions you come to!
Vulture preservation as a global health intervention
Since the mid 1990's the vulture population in India has been rapidly declining. The reason is due to a few chemicals which are fed to livestock, which is highly poisonous to vultures.
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Michael Nielsen has a beautiful new essay on moral imagination: the ability humans have to 'develop and transmit new notions of good action, indeed, even new kinds of good'.
As examples, he gives:
* Hammurabi's creation of a code of laws (in 1754 BCE) and his justification of his rule not in terms of divine or hereditary right, but by the delivery of justice to his citizens.
* St Gregory of Nyssa's...
Recent opportunities to take action
In case you missed it, EAGx Virtual is next month! https://www.eaglobal.org/events/eagxvirtual-2022/
Ha I definitely did miss it! Why are there applications though for a virtual event? That seems like an easy opportunity to be much more open like Scott is suggesting.
I'm not certain of the admissions standard for that particular event, but the description says they "welcome those at all levels of engagement" so my guess is that the admissions process is for screening purposes.
Eli mentioned in his reply to Scott that using an admissions process lets us try to screen out applicants who have caused problems at past events or who seem likely to cause problems. I'd have to check with our Community Events team to be sure that's the reason here.
Ah fair enough. That's definitely a good reason. FWIW as someone long time EA adjacent but more newly active some of the questions in the application feel more like proving one's fidelity to the EA cause rather than generally screening for problematic people or ensuring a diversity of perspectives.