Careers in Environmental Solutions Soon To Explode

At a certain point in his life, (American musician/composer) Leonard Bernstein said, and I paraphrase, “I never wanted a life like (Italian conductor of classical music, noted for interpretations of Beethoven, Arturo) Toscanini, constantly relearning the same 50 pieces of music.”

About 30 years later, (master of rock guitar improvisation) Frank Zappa said this (starts at 13:25 in the interview), i.e., performing note-for-note guitar solos is not much different than punching a timeclock.

In the late 20th Century, some people, and I’m very grateful to have been one of them, had the luxury of enjoying most of what we did in our careers.  As I told my kids when they were young, “The only way to have an enjoyable career is to find something you love and get damn good at it.”  But how possible is that for young people, especially given the post-COVID-19 pandemic? Here are my concerns:

Even before the pandemic, we had extremely talented people serving coffee at places like Starbucks.

Post the pandemic, many solid, well-paying office jobs won’t be coming back.  Now that more people have accepted shopping online, many retail jobs are gone forever, and this glut of talent will further drive up the supply of people looking for jobs.

We hope that somehow our civilization will have some sort of epiphany that “normalcy was what got us in this position in the first place” and forge a new society accordingly, but by what mechanism could that occur?  Neoliberalism, i.e., more or less unfettered capitalism, privatizing as much as possible, is the only thing most Americans know.  We don’t know anything other than that.

Billionaire Jamie Dimon,chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest American bank, was asked in 2012 if he preferred Barack Obama or Mitt Romney.  His answer?  “It doesn’t matter.” His reasoning: they’re both neoliberals who will stand behind the social order that’s been in place since 1980, where virtually all the new wealth in this country goes to the top 1%.  Pick whomever you like; they’re virtually indistinguishable from one another.

So, where does the path lie toward a rewarding and successful career for young people?  Cleantech, whether that means marine science, renewable energy, electric transportation, smart grid, sustainable ag, etc.

Success is ensured for people who take this path and pursue it assiduously due to pent-up demand, as things like environmental collapse (and viruses) can’t be conned out of existence.  The U.S. spent the last three years believing otherwise, but that’s all about to come crashing down.

Yes, federal government has removed or is in the process of removing 95 different environmental protection standards. At the same time, 2020 is on track to be the hottest year since record-keeping started 140 years ago.  Last winter was the very first time that the capitals of the arctic nations had no snow on the ground in January.  All that heat creates a litany of real problems, and their impact is becoming more deadly and more obvious with each passing year.  And again, they won’t be going away because the President of the United States continues to prove that he can bamboozle 40+% of American voters.

It won’t be long before the demand for solutions becomes irresistible and success becomes unavoidable for those who are prepared; that’s because success is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.  The only things that could conceivably prevent this opportunity from emerging are either a technological miracle, or disaster for humanity (like an asteroid with Earth’s name on it) that renders the situation moot.  Both are extremely low-probability events, meaning that young people are very likely to have their turn at bat.

Whether or not they will be prepared is another matter.