long-ish, climate politics
@isotopp@chaos.social @vladh Yes, I understand what you're saying. What I'm trying to explain is that that isn't how it works - you can't just tell someone "go write letters instead".
Just because someone is able to optimize power usage of code, doesn't mean they are also able to spend that same time writing letters to politicians! If you tell them not to 'waste their time' on code optimization, chances are that instead they will do... nothing at all, as that is just not where their ability and interest lies.
Even *if* improving code efficiency had no meaningful benefit (and I suspect that to a degree, that is true), at the very least it is something that allows someone to engage with the topic of climate change and become involved with fighting it. A small but nonzero portion of those people will get involved in larger, more impactful efforts.
Also, "writing letters to politicians" is an odd example to pick here, given that that is almost the least efficient way possible of engaging with politics.
long-ish, climate politics
@isotopp@chaos.social @vladh And to be clear, it is very important to recognize the triviality of this 'solution' in the bigger scheme of things, and make sure that everyone understands that it is, at best, a small first step, and there is more work to do - such a project shouldn't start seeing itself as a saviour.
But that doesn't mean that there aren't still reasons to do it anyway. Many hands make light work, diverse tactics especially so.
