How to be an environmentalist without riding in a Greenpeace anti-sealer

When I was twelve, I saved up my allowance and sent $25 to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to “buy” an acre of the rainforest. Along with my well-worn bills, I sent a self-congratulatory note about how I was celebrating Earth Day by doing my part for the environment and vowed to buy an acre every year thereafter. I was thrilled to receive a note back from the president of WWF praising me for being “so committed to the environment at such a young age.” 

Although I did buy four more acres, joined my school’s environmental club (yep, I was cool) and ate vegetarian for years, I have a confession to make—instead of growing as I did, my environmentalism seems to have pulled a Benjamin Button. And, sadly, it has nothing to do with Brad Pitt.

Sure, I use cloth diapers with my kids, buy the latest green cleaning products and try to stay current about all the little things I can do to minimize my ecological footprint. But my dreams of marching in protests against evil polluting corporations have faded into the background of my everyday life. Does this make me any less of an environmentalist?

Lately, I’ve been thinking my pseudo-Catholic guilt has been misplaced—if I care what goes into our ocean, earth, air and bodies, perhaps I am an environmentalist. I think there’s room for everybody on the spectrum—whether I choose to support Greenpeace through monthly donations or by disrupting the seal hunt in a black, flimsy-looking dingy that could tip into the icy, frigid water at any moment.

So, if you are like me, and you feel more comfortable working within the system than on the margins, you’re in luck. Because there’s a wide-open, lush field of green careers to pick from that will satisfy your inner environmentalist.

The cleantech industry is built on renewable energy technology, which produces clean, efficient energy that strengthens the economy, protects the environment, and reduces our dependence on finite sources like oil and gas. All of these cleantech technologies need—you guessed it—technologists. So if you’re mechanically inclined (we won’t talk about your other inclinations here) than this might just be the perfect green-collar career for you.

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination”

I don’t know, was American country music icon Jimmy Dean a wind technologist at heart?

Call me crazy, but I think there’s something majestic about a wind farm full of turbines all silently turning, as if by some massive invisible hand. And the fact that these white, over-sized fans are capturing the wind to generate electricity is really quite remarkable.

In the past decade, wind farms have grown from a handful to a worldwide phenomenon. Wind energy needs technologists trained in evaluating the readiness of new turbines for operation, troubleshooting any electrical and mechanical problems, and performing complex repairs, including ones dealing with variable pitch and speed turbines.

“Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun…please shine down on me”

Probably the most recognizable of green technologies, solar energy is one of the fastest growing sectors of renewable energy right now. It takes less money to implement, it’s faster to build out, and solar energy doesn’t face quite the same regulatory challenges that wind and geothermal power do. As with the other green-tech careers, you can train in the design, installation, and repair of this renewable energy technology, and you can also find a job manufacturing the parts.

As Rhone Resch of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) said, one of the greatest things about solar energy is that you don’t drill for it, “you manufacture it.”Which means, as the solar energy industry continues to expand, so do manufacturing jobs. In fact, there are more than 3,400 solar companies in America, and counting. And if you’re willing to work overseas, the solar energy markets in Italy and Germany are even greater.

The quest for efficiency

For our parents’ generation, the work philosophy was to work harder. Now, the key to getting ahead in the wildly diverse and dynamic global economy is to work smarter. This principle of efficiency can be applied to renewable energy as well.

Although you might think the renewable energy sector is all about R & D and the latest innovations (which it is), it’s also about improving upon tried and true models—even if these models happen to be within its own field.

Did you know that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sees the reduction of energy consumption within buildings as a key to future sustainability? Your energy efficiency training can get you ready to analyze, operate, and control building systems and equipment used to create optimal thermal environments for residential and commercial structures. Essentially, you can “green” buildings by analyzing their existing energy usage, making adjustments to their inefficient high-energy consuming systems, and then recommending more suitable renewable energy systems.

“Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself”

Oh Shakespeare, you sure do talk pretty, even if I don’t understand you. One thing that’s pretty simple to understand is the equation essential to geothermal technology: geo (earth) + thermal (heat) = clean energy. Instead of drilling for oil, you drill deep wells into underground reservoirs to tap the steam and extremely hot water. You can then bring this water to the surface and use it as a heat and power source.

And—as with the other renewable energy sources—geothermal energy is sustainable. Just like we won’t run out of wind or sun, we’re not going to run out of heat generated by the Earth’s core any time soon. Plus, even with those sites dependent on a reservoir of hot water, the volume taken out can be re-injected.

So what would becoming a geothermal technologist mean to you? Well, you could speak intelligently to those Hollywood gems like Journey to the Center of the Earth. And, you could enjoy a long-term, sustainable career. Just like wind technology, which began centuries ago as a way to grind grain faster, geothermal technology’s roots run deep. In fact, the Lardarello field in Italy has been operating since 1913, the Wairakei field in New Zealand since 1958, and The Geysers field in California since 1960.

Geothermal technology, like its renewable energy brethren, hasn’t yet reached its full potential. Geothermal is expanding as quickly as the supporting technology will allow it. There are enormous, worldwide geothermal resources—hot, dry rock and magma—that remain untapped, waiting for technological development to set them free.

So you’ve got a proven track record of reliability and a green technology that’s effectively an intelligent, but underdeveloped teenager. The possibilities are truly endless.