eco-friendly careers?

I would say any career working with kids because you have the ability to show the importance of respecting the enviorment and there's nothing funner than decorating giant trashcans and getting paint flinged at you.

 

Tree planting is good. Restoration work. Eco tourism is questionable at best. I have worked in Africa with a group called HUMANA, originally scandinavian based they now have an organization in the states also. Politically they are right on doing work such as for orphans, schools, health clinics,AIDS, tree planting. They take anyone. If you can't afford a plane ticket, they have ways for you to work it out, it is basically a volunteer type thing and you only get enough pay to live on but their heart is in the right place in my opinion

 

Tree planting's bad--you're just creating an artificial forest (often with non-native species) where once a thriving ecosystem once flourished.

 

i agree with working with kids. i believe the best way to change the course of the world is to teach the young.

to integrate this idea, i hope someday to be a summer camp owner. i have been going to summer camp all my life, and i have learned so many valuable lessons about the environment and also met people who shared similar interests. the camp i went to was a girl scout camp (thus non-profit), used minimum electricity (no lighting or air conditioning in the cabins), used minimum water (5 minute showers every other day at most), was filled with environment-loving counselors that taught girls to respect Earth, taught leave-no-trace camping, only used trails to travel across, and overall just brought girls into a simpler, nurturing, teaching, more fun environment.

alright, i rambled, but i'm kind of in love with camp.

 

I think that showing by example is a good thing: eating less meat and dairy, spending less, more 2:nd hand, less show-off, and not being ashamed of it... I think that what really can make a difference, is stopping to think "what the others will think", and I'm not thinking of the "neighbours", because hippies have already fixed that, but all the others includind friends.

 

checkout www.nwyouthcorps.org my son worked with this organization for a few summers (sometimes about 3-5 months) and really loved it.

 

tree planting done in a responsible way can be good. Native species can be used. It is better to have trees than a desert. It is a step toward rebuilding an ecosystem that was destroyed by logging

 

I have a friend who is an Enviromental Chemist and he works for the EPA. He tests soil, waterways, and conservations for toxicity levels. He also does general pollution surveys and reports what he then sends to the EPA. ADM was dumping toxic chemicals into a pond, and due to his testing and a little detective work, ADM was heavily fined and has lawsuits pending due to the dumping.
I have another friend who works with trees with the Conservation department and park service near my home. She plants trees and also surveys trees that are growing in certain areas, inspects the state of health they are in, and the impact the undergrowth and trail usage has on area.
There are a lot of specific enviromentally friendly jobs that simply do little damage to the enviroment, there are many that specifically effect the land in a positive way.
Vanadium stated that there is no way to get around damaging the enviroment. There are many ways, as humans, we have not fully developed to our full potential. We will have to adapt and live in harmony with nature, or die. Its as simple as that. Its possible that we will start feeling the effects in our own lifetime.
MikeE is right about the Beaver. We are as much a natural process as the turning of the earth. Saying that we remove ourselves from the nature due to technology is wrong. It is not right for us to not live in harmony with the enviroment, but that does not make us more evil or less of a natural force than anything in nature. Our technology is an exoskeleton. Our society is a living thing larger than each of us.
If polluting was not within our nature, we would not do it. Actually the biggest problem is not that we pollute, its that we are over populated, inefficient, and our waste management systems have not been able to keep up with the growing population. Within our lifetime, we will see resources diminish, and the population is either going to diminish, or we will have to adapt a utilize our resources more efficiently

 

The problem is, tree planting done in a responsible way and with native trees is not most profitable for the logging company. Tree planters aren't there to restore the ecosystem to its former glory, but to plant a crop for the logging company.

 

ive been looking into careers at school and my teacher suggested looking into being enviromental lawyer. any one know what this is. i asked sevral law professionals they only gave me vague unhelpful decriptions