In recent years, I have found myself increasingly interested by universal issues, such as climate change, animal welfare, human rights and global health. Admittedly, I cannot remember the exact timelime of this shift in priorities, but the covid-19 pandemic has undeniably played a key role in accelerating it. More than ever before, part of my free time has been dedicated to reading and informing myself on such topics.
Learning about these topics made me realise that a lot of individual actions, to which I had not previously given enough thought, mattered greatly. The new information had quickly a concrete impact on my everyday choices. On the one hand I became aware that I could reduce my negative impact on the planet by doing things like catching a train instead of a flight whenever possible, decreasing consumeristic habits, choosing an ethical banking services, ceasing the intentional consumption of animal products, and becoming overall a much more aware consumer. On the other hand I could have a positive impact through donating to effective charities, getting more involved in social movements, and encourage others to do the same. These actions seem widely trivial to me now and yet I get regularly reminded that awareness on such topics for many people remains, like it had been for myself, low.
As I move forward in life, I want to dedicate more of my time and skills to activities that lead to a positive impact on the world.
The meaning of positive impact was brought to a whole new level when I encountered the principles of Effective Altruism.
Effective Altruism
I discovered Effective Altruism (abbreviated EA) in 2021. In brief, EA is a movement and a community that aims at doing good better, guided by evidence. EA identifies the most pressing problems of our times based on scale, neglectedness and tractability.
The data-driven approach of EA naturally appealed to my scientific mindset, and I discovered that many cause areas identified by EA overlap with my pre-existing interests, while others were almost new to me.
I have had the great pleasure of attending three of their independently organised global conferences, EAGx Rotterdam 2022, EAGx Berlin and Virtual 2023. Here I met, talked and got inspired by people active in the community. I could attend talks and workshops on causes that are dear to me, like climate mitigation and farmed animals welfare, as well as learn insights on less known topics and why they are relevant at the present moment, like a.i. safety or wild animals welfare.
All the experiences and encounters made in the frame of EA inspired me to wanting to stir my professional path towards higher impact work.
Links
Intrigued by EA? I encourage anyone to read their introductory article and see if their principles resonate with you like they resonated with me.
Do you have questions and ideas to share about global issues and/or want to connect over doing good? Please do not hesitate to contact me!