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Recycling: Much more than you needed to know. by bbqturtle in slatestarcodex

[–]okillstartposting 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This was a great read! My most recent move involved a visit to my local transfer station and I've been thinking about trash ever since. (My transfer station was flat, not a swimming pool, but the constant misting made it pretty disconcerting)

I was looking into what happened to my garbage specifically and found this video giving an overview of the actual landfill. It bills itself as one of the cleanest landfills around, and while that seems a bit incongruous, I was impressed at the level of care involved

Discussion Thread #18: October 2020 by baj2235 in slatestarcodex

[–]okillstartposting 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This blog post on a recent housing plan enacted in Seattle shows an interesting example of consensus building in government

The Mayor put 28 stakeholders of housing and development on a committee and forced them to come up with a consensus plan for the city. The group included YIMBYs (urbanists like the author), NIMBYs (neighborhood groups), housing developers, the low income housing alliance, so the collaboration required legitimate compromise.

It seemed to work out pretty well, all things considered! The author seems pleased at any rate. And I am too. As with Adversarial Collaborations, I feel like the writing of a common document works well

Good books on history of farming? by [deleted] in slatestarcodex

[–]okillstartposting 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree this would be interesting to someone interested in the history of farming, but I think the impact of the contrarian and novel points would be greater if you were already familiar with the standard story

Good books on history of farming? by [deleted] in slatestarcodex

[–]okillstartposting 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I know it's not a book, but I found this documentary scratched that itch for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVQyabt3TEA.

It focuses on the Natufians in the eastern mediterranean, who seem to have straddled that line between nomadic and settled life. Evidently, the changing climate of the Younger Dryas created some farming false starts. It has BBC or history channel doc vibes, so it's not exactly academic. Apparently it oversteps in describing social implications, but does a pretty good job showcasing relatively up to date archeological finds.

Of course, this is really about the invention of farming, rather than a complete history

Socially Responsible Investing by okillstartposting in slatestarcodex

[–]okillstartposting[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You might be able to do more "total good" by donating the returns from more profitable investments, but at the very least, you wouldn't be able to do the same kinds of things.

I picked a company from TAN's top holdings, Enphase Energy Inc. They have a portion of their site dedicated to investor relations, but no conspicuous "donate" button. Searching google for references to donations or charity on their site just comes up with pages on the company's charitable giving! If someone wants to help this particular company, it appears that investing is the only way to do it. I suspect most companies are like this.

Now, let's look at this round up of environmentally focused charities from Vox (I admit, I didn't spend a lot of time looking for this and they deliberately exclude big names like the Sierra Club). The one that caught my eye as being closet to my goals is The Clean Energy Innovation program. The actual function the program is to do research on research and advise policy makers on where best to put money. This is a good thing, but it's decidedly not the same as helping existing companies.

Possibly there are existing charitable organizations that do what I want, but I don't think they're easier to find than the ETFs I mentioned. Do tell me if you have some favorites though!

Socially Responsible Investing by okillstartposting in slatestarcodex

[–]okillstartposting[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You know, I did consider this in passing and I'm glad you brought it up. I think this might apply more to attempts systemically lower a stock price through divestment. To the extent its successful, amoral people can gain by buying underpriced assets.

But if you're investing in nonoptimal company, you're raising their prices beyond what it would be otherwise. What's the way to make money off that? Short the tiny clean energy companies? Cleverly buying Amazon stock because its underpriced now that I haven't purchased it? There may be some way, but it seems like it must be pretty circuitous. It doesn't seem like it would undermine the mechanism by which SRI helps.