The world is changing faster today than at any point since the last ice age ended roughly 10,000 years ago, and the main driver of that change is us, not natural cycles. Letting these shifts continue unchecked would be reckless at best. Tracking them, and convincing others that certain actions affecting the environment need to start or stop, takes properly trained people — people who hold a genuine environmental science degree and know how to read the data behind the headlines. For more background, also read Unusual Science– The Inner Workings Of The National Science Foundation.
It has often been said that what colleges and universities teach is a direct response to the job market and its trends. If that is true, the outlook for graduates with an environmental science degree could hardly be brighter.
After the industrial age and the information age, we are moving quickly into an environmental age, one where the state of the planet and how it behaves carries real weight.
As a society, we have never paid close attention to the environment, and plenty of people would argue we still do not pay enough, even now. Decades of drawing down the planet’s natural resources, alongside a steady stream of heat and waste byproducts, have done lasting, sometimes irreversible damage.
We are living through a period where understanding and adapting to our surroundings is no longer optional — it is the only way forward. That takes qualified people, especially those holding a proper environmental science degree.
A handful of related degrees sit alongside the traditional environmental science track. Industry has long been required to meet safety and workplace-security standards, and in fields like biotechnology, the nature of the materials involved means the potential for disaster is real.
Disaster management and hazardous-materials handling are disciplines in high demand across today’s high-tech industries. These programs are rarely thorough enough to stand alone as full science degrees, so schools usually bundle them together with an environmental science degree as part of a package.
For a student pursuing environmental science, that bundling is a genuine advantage. Alongside their main coursework, they can pick up credentials in several related fields. That makes them well-rounded professionals, capable of stepping into a wide range of industries once they graduate with an environmental science degree.
Thanks to decades of lobbying, the United States is home to some of the world’s largest and best-funded environmental groups, and many of the people working for these groups hold environmental science degrees.
Jobs exist across government bodies, lobbying roles with political and business organizations, and research positions with foundations and other research institutions. More openings sit inside the environmental safety departments of major oil companies, and even in faculty positions at colleges and universities that offer environmental science programs. All of them offer solid, long-term careers that professionals with an environmental science degree can reasonably aim for.
An environmental science degree does not cover environmental topics alone. Given the nature of the work, professionals earning this degree also need grounding in related subjects like compliance, law, criminal justice, and public communication.
The coursework behind an environmental science degree is broad, varied, and genuinely interesting, spanning hard science, policy, and communication alike. Someone holding this degree is likely to end up responsible for protecting our surroundings for decades to come, so we need the best, most capable people we can get.
If you care about the world we live in, or you have the drive and determination to help repair an environment that keeps degrading, an environmental science degree is an excellent place to start.
Anyone hoping to become an environmental professional would typically need a BS in Environmental Science before moving on to an MS or a PhD in Environmental Studies.
Environmental science degrees are offered at nearly every major college and university across the United States and the wider Western world, from large public research universities down to smaller liberal-arts schools. You can pursue the degree full-time, part-time, or through distance learning, so whatever your circumstances or schedule, there is a way to get involved. Also interesting: The Merits of Inflation, The Science of Science! and Finding Science Articles Online. Related to this, see Buttercup.