Hi all!  My name's Tom. I'm an A level student in the UK, currently studying Politics, Philosophy and Environmental Science. My main forays into the world of altruism include volunteering at Oxfam for a period and donating to the odd charity here or there. Admittedly though, Oxfam isn't a very effectively targeted organisation, and the charities I have previously donated to have been more based on superficial measures such as my respect for people who endorse them or have been motivated by disaster responses.

The issue I'm most concerned about is Climate Change, which I notice doesn't seem to be as big an issue for many members of the EA community. My subject A level choices were largely influenced by my aspirations to help tackle Climate Change, and ideally I'd like to move into an effective career in this area ASAP. However, some of the stuff I've read in the EA community, particularly some of the advice of 80000hours.org has made me contemplate this plan, but I think it is something I'll have to contemplate further.

I seem to remember that I initially found Effective Altruism through the reddit page after I google search on some adjacent topic that I can no longer remember. I initially thought it seemed like a good idea which reflected lots of questions and ideas I'd had myself, but haven't been able to productively apply thus far. However, it wasn't until a video I watched recently by YouTuber Ali Abdaal where he discusses taking the Just Giving Pledge, that I started to dig deeper and read more about the community. Upon discovering EA I realised that I'd been on the cusp of discovering it several times, such as when I first heard about GiveWell (which I found out about through a sponsored Simon Clark as I recall) and another time when I read the synopsis of, and almost bought the book Moral Uncertainty by William MacAskill, Krister Bykvist and Toby Ord.

More recently I've started a Sustainability group at my college to try and educate students on climate change and reduce the College's emissions, however as mentioned above, I am beginning to question the effectiveness of climate interventions such as these.

I have many questions ideas I'd like to discuss relating to EA. The following is a list of a few things things I'm thinking about right now, but might write more detailed posts on:

• Does 80000hours.org work with careers advisers in educational institutions?
• In Doing Good Better, William MacAskill sets out the view that carbon offsets are more efficient than reducing ones on footprint, however what is the limit to this, and would are its drawbacks? If there are few, surely more people and governments would take this carbon sequestration approach.
• If we should donate to the best causes, surely it doesn't make sense to donate to more than one cause? However, isn't there something to be said for supporting less effective causes so that would-be beneficiaries don't feel neglected?

If anyone knows of any information/resources on these topics than please send them my way!