'No point in anything else': Gen Z members flock to climate careers
Colleges offer support as young people aim to devote their lives to battling the crisisCalifornia is facing a drought so devastating, some publications call it “biblical”. Colorado now has “fire years” instead of “fire seasons”. Miami, which sees more dramatic hurricanes each year, is contemplating building a huge seawall in one of the city’s most scenic tourist districts to protect it from storm surges.
“Once you learn how damaged the world’s ecosystems are, it’s not really something you can unsee,” says Rachel Larrivee, 23, a sustainability consultant based in Boston. “To me, there’s no point in pursuing a career – or life for that matter – in any other area.”
Larrivee is one of countless members of Gen Z, a generation that roughly encompasses young people under 25, who are responding to the planet’s rapidly changing climate by committing their lives to finding a solution. Survey after survey shows young people are not just incorporating new climate-conscious behaviors into their day-to-day lives – they’re in it for the long haul. College administrators say surging numbers of students are pursuing environmental-related degrees and careers that were once considered irresponsible, romantic flights of fancy compared to more “stable” paths like business, medicine, or law.
“I cannot imagine a career that isn’t connected to even just being a small part of a solution,” says Mimi Ausland, 25, the founder of Free the Ocean, a company that aims to leverage small actions to remove plastic from the ocean.
Democrats in Washington hope to channel this energy through the proposed Civilian Climate Corps, a federal jobs program for young people to help fight the climate crisis and conserve public lands. While funding for the New Deal-inspired program is tied up in budget negotiations on Capitol Hill, youth activists say they hope it would help kids fresh out of high school land environmental-related jobs.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/06/gen-z-climate-change-careers-jobs
Hundreds of protesters march to the White House calling for climate action, including a Civilian Climate Corps. Photograph: Allison Bailey/Rex/Shutterstock
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Not only that corporate greed has all but made our beautiful planet virtually unimhabitable, but...
This reminds me of all the kids I worked with a long time ago who had Aspergers.
I had several young ones who, immediately upon being introduced to me stated, "My name is (whatever) & I came to save the Earth."
Go kids, goooo!!! 
She became a teacher, her first job was in a one room schoolhouse where some of her students were older than she was. And she remembered them all. She told me that back in her day girls basically had a choice of being a teacher or a nurse, so it was a no brainer for her. But she said that if she was in school now, she'd choose to become an environmentalist. I lost her this week in 1998 and still miss her every day. 
I'll bet you do miss her!
I never got to know any of my grandparents as they had all departed the mortal coil before I was born. I often wonder what it would have been like to know them.
But I had 2 pretty awesome grandmothers. My teacher grandmother (Nana) was quite remarkable, she was a world traveler - she's the one I went to the USSR with (well, her peace group). And my maternal grandmother came here from Poland at 15 and made a life here, her first job was in a factory (she said it was folding sweatshirts for 10-cents an hour) but she married and she and my grandfather (also from Poland) ran their own grocery and sent 2 daughters to college and she sent money and clothing to her family in Poland for the rest of her life. And both of them were widowed young (especially Nana, the youngest of her 4 kids was only 3) but carried on - all her kids graduated from college, too. She was big on education. I'm proud of both of them.
My maternal grandmother came from Poland, too, just before Hitler swept through & murdered lots of people, most of my family there included.
I often think of how brave she was to get on a boat alone at the age of 18 knowing she would likely never see her family again.
Brave women! And I am always grateful to her for her bravery.
My Babci emigrated from Poland by herself - well, she same with a friend, no family. She was the eldest so was the one chosen to go. I learned she had been a twin, but her twin died when they were only 7. And she never returned home again, either. I believe she had a younger brother who she never knew since he was born after she left. And she was 15 - I was absolutely miserable when I was sent to boarding school at 16. I wish now that I had asked both of my grandmothers more questions. My Nana talked about the 1918 pandemic. She said that her teacher brought her schoolwork to her at home and she did it in front of the fireplace. I took that to mean that she had it.
