A job or study w/t intention of helping animal, environment & climate change
Greetings,
Let me introduce myself. I'm a Belgian student, soon to graduate as a master in geology. I started my studies with the intention of understanding the earth and its processes. During my studies I have come to know myself and my interests better. I already followed a lot of courses about climate, past climate and ecology, even doing my thesis about an environmental reconstruction. I now know what I want to do with my life but I'm having a very hard time deciding what to do and finding the right persons to solve all my questions. I'm hoping that I can expand my vision by posting here, and I of course hope that someone can help me.
So what I would really want to do with my life. For starters, I am a veganist and I can't stand killing animals for the delight of pleasing your tastebuds for 10 seconds. The practices of the meat industry is wrong in my eyes and it would be better to eat less meat, not only for animal rights, but also for health reasons and for the environmental problems. Reducing meat and dairy intake would ideally play a very big role in my future job, either direct or indirect. Other than my big love for animals, I also love nature as a whole, and hate to see it destroyed by humans. My other big interests are climate, environment and helping people (educating, making more conscious,..). I also love the palaeohistory and evolution of man, and the link between the past and the future. For example I like the fact man started eating meat because of necessity in the grasslands, but technology and knowledge now is more advanced so that eating meat is absolutely no requirement anymore. Saying this I also love (green) technology, problemsolving, inventing and aim to combine all my interests in one. Very important for my later job is enormous variation, a lot of travelling to distant countries and able to look at what I have accomplished.
Basically it comes down to this point: I want to change the world.. for as much possible by a single man.
I have some paths I am willing to take. (1) Either continue a study, for example get another masters degree about environment. (2) Try to start a phd. (3) Find a suitable job that honors my needs.
If I start (1), then my job problem remains after the study ends. But still it could be good to start another study, although I don't quite know which one to do. The closest I can get to environmental studies in my country is: bio-engineer: environmental technologies. But that specifies about creating clean air, water and soil, and not really what I want to do.
(2) would be possible, but the biggest problem is to find a promotor. Nowhere in my country can I find a person with interest in climate and environment concerning animals.
(3) Recently I have started looking for jobs and I have come to realize I detest industry. Maybe because I have only heard personal stories of people in oil and chemistry business, but I don't see myself working in an industry where money is top priority. Other than industry, I don't know much. There are ngo's but it seems to me they rarely offer jobs and mostly rely on volunteers.
Ideally I would be doing research about the consequences of meat and dairy on the environments or climate change, gathering evidence from all over the world, while educating people and saving animals and nature at the same time.
I still have some months but it really starts to urge. Thank you very much for reading!
(I pardon myself of possible errors and I realize I may have forgot some info, but you can always ask!)
Re: A job or study w/t intention of helping animal, environment & climate change
Hello. Maybe you could talk yourself into a "Corporate Social Responsibility" job with an oil company or similar that would involve environmental protection including animal protection? A lot of big organisations are "talking the talk" about the environment now so they ought to leap at the chance to work with someone who actually knows something about it. And/or perhaps they would like to fund your PhD. No harm in trying!
I don't think a role like that would be advertised but maybe you can explore the possibilities by writing to them and "networking"? There do seem to be one or two "sustainability" jobs advertised as well e.g. http://www.earthworks-jobs.com/sd.html so maybe you could find some contacts that way.
Re: A job or study w/t intention of helping animal, environment & climate change
Quote:
harpy
Hello. Maybe you could talk yourself into a "Corporate Social Responsibility" job with an oil company or similar that would involve environmental protection including animal protection? A lot of big organisations are "talking the talk" about the environment now so they ought to leap at the chance to work with someone who actually knows something about it. And/or perhaps they would like to fund your PhD. No harm in trying!
I don't think a role like that would be advertised but maybe you can explore the possibilities by writing to them and "networking"? There do seem to be one or two "sustainability" jobs advertised as well e.g.
http://www.earthworks-jobs.com/sd.html so maybe you could find some contacts that way.
Thanks, that's very useful advice! I'll take that into account as well!
Re: A job or study w/t intention of helping animal, environment & climate change
Quote:
Hylobates
Basically it comes down to this point: I want to change the world.. for as much possible by a single man.
Now that's exactly the kind of thinking that we need! I really hope my reply doesn't come to late for you!
First of all I just joined this amazing forum so hi all! Actually I joined just so I could reply to your question :) Very interesting topics here!
It's very encouraging to hear that you want to do the most good you can! I am happy to say that there is a community of people who want to do excatly what you want to do. There's an expression for "changing the world as much for as much possible as you can": Effective Altruism (http://effective-altruism.org). It's a science and a movement that combines both the heart and the head to make the world a better place.
Now the most important part. The people who want to make the world better for animals as much as they can get together at "Effective Animal Activism". (http://effectiveanimalactivism.org). This website is so important that I suggest you read some articles there before even reading the end of my post :P They really changed my life and how I think about changing the world. You can join their discussions on fb at http://facebook.com/groups/EffectiveAnimalActivism and get updates at facebook.com/EffectiveAnimalActivism.
They say that you can do a lot of good by contributing to the most effective animal non-profits (money and work). Some of them turn out to be hundreds of times more effective than others, which means you can do a lot of good there. They also recommend some research carreers (culture meat/kweekvlees for example) and carreers with social enterprises and in journalism, politics etc.
Research also shows that saving animals from factory farming is one of the most effective things you can do against climate change and evironmental degradation.
The other most important to answer your questions is 80000 Hours (http://80000hours.org). 80000 Hours is a free organisation made to help you change the world. The number refers to the number of hours people work on average in their carreers. So as you rightly said, the most effective way to do good is through your carreer ;) They use evidence to separate the carreers that do some good from the ones that do a huge amount of good. You might be surprised by their findings ;) 80000 Hours have a large amount of info and research to answer all your questions. (Btw they also answer free one-on-one carreer advice if you ask. I talked to an advisor on skype and they helped me choose my major). If you have to choose your future carreer path now, this is a crucial point in your life! Maybe ask them and they will do some research for you on how you personally could do the most for animals :)
You will see that there's some amazing things you can do to help huge numbers of animals. It has been really eye-opening for me to see how much one person can change the world. There's a lot to learn about changing the world and you have to be smart. But it looks like you're an intelligent guy and you're up to it :) That's why I joined and replied to your thread. You can ask me any questions any time! If saving animals is your goal then your goal is my goal!
Here is a some more links that may interest you:
http://80000hours.org/animal-welfare
http://www.thehumaneleague.com/donate.htm
http://www.utilitarian-essays.com/dollar-worth.pdf and http://www.utilitarian-essays.com/suffering-per-kg.html (sciency stuff :P)
http://www.veganoutreach.org/article...alcareers.html
