Pulling in this conversation between myself, Coolpineapple18 and @wpb on twitter which I think has excellent feedback (edited to remove usernames for readability)
threaded from this tweet: https://twitter.com/CoolPineapple18/status/1512327525032251395
I personally believe that the climate and biodiversity crisis is the biggest threat we face and like the idea of making the #IC the greenest blockchain. So I generally support the concrete steps to monitor consumption, have a dashboard and target reductions…
…However I’m uncomfortable with the NNS ratifying a belief. IMHO global warming is a fact supported by a huge amount of scientific data but I don’t think the NNS should be in the business of making statements. The point of blockchains is credible neutrality.
If we open the door of making non technical statements of belief then we have become then things get very political very fast. As individuals we may stand with Ukrainian, believe in global warming, support BLM… ect but a technical system should not be in the business of belief…
we should be a neutral platform for the world with certain technical properties - including energy efficiency - not a DAO with beliefs that takes a stance on issues. If we do that we lose people countries and cultures who disagree as potential users.
Then @wpb chimed in:
I can agree with your concern about ratifying a “belief” and wouldn’t mind seeing that language changed in the proposal to something that would be perceived to be more diplomatic. However, there is a strong marketing opportunity here that makes the proposal worth pursuing.
I would just edit the middle bullet point to make environmentally sustainability an ongoing objective. (Similar in framing to long term R&D proposals on other topics Motion Proposals on Long Term R&D Plans)
BTW: There is some tension with performance and security eg replication factor but we can frame this as an objective “how do we improve environmental sustainability without sacrificing security and performance” and I think that question could lead to interesting designs.