I know this is going to get downvoted but I have to say it: the problem is not CO2, the problem is CO2 alarmism. The models on which the IPCC predictions of doom are based do not match the data. Even the IPCC admits that in the AR5. The actual data says that CO2-driven warming is not enough to worry about. (Not to mention that the prediction of doom also depends on economic models which are even worse at matching data than the climate ones are.)
We should not be spending the valuable resource of startup founders on this problem. We should be spending it on creating enough wealth to bring everyone in the world out of poverty and giving them the tools to adapt to whatever happens in the future, including changes in climate.
I don't know enough about the data to contribute any thoughts on it. Could be valid, could be incomplete/inaccurate. However, I don't think this is an either/or situation, and wouldn't it be great if we contributed some time and focus on making sure that there is a world left in which the impoverished can be helped?
It is if the alarmists have their way and we commit trillions of dollars in resources to CO2 mitigation. That's trillions of dollars that can't be spent to create wealth and bring people out of poverty. That's a lot of opportunity cost.
To be clear, YCombinator's money is theirs and they can invest it however they choose. I don't know what fraction of their total investment will end up being committed to this. My objection is to the "existential threat" language, which makes it seem as though they would be willing to drop everything else and commit all of their resources to this effort. (After all, if it really were an existential threat, why wouldn't they? How could they justify funding any other startups?)
the data does not say we will be cooked to death. the data says our planet's ecospheres will continue to be increasingly violent and unstable if the warming continues. the warming is caused by atmospheric cO2.
The key items are on p. 16: first, that the "likely" range of equilibrium climate sensitivity is 1.5 - 4.5 C (which is the same as the first report in 1990--we have learned nothing in 28 years), and second, the footnote at the bottom of the page: "No best estimate for equilibrium climate sensitivity can now be given because of a lack of agreement on values across assessed lines of evidence and studies".
First, this raises the question: if there is lack of agreement, how did they even come up with the "likely" range? How can they say anything at all? And second, since the climate sensitivity is a key input to the models, how can the models possibly be valid?
We should not be spending the valuable resource of startup founders on this problem. We should be spending it on creating enough wealth to bring everyone in the world out of poverty and giving them the tools to adapt to whatever happens in the future, including changes in climate.