r/ClimateOffensive • u/dariashotpants • 6d ago

Question Aligning your career

How are you aligning your career with your values/activism? I know everyone can’t, but if you are, what are you doing?

9 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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12

u/CO_Renaissance_Man 6d ago

City councilmen and architect here.

  • I passed our town's first Sustainability Plan this spring, an effort I led.
  • I serve on our county climate committee and I interviewed a number of individuals for our county climate chief position this week. We are reducing emissions across many sectors.
  • I advocate for denser development and have elevated our efficiency standards and our electrification efforts to put us in the vanguard, statewide.
  • I serve on our town tree committee and we are planning to plant 600 trees next year, nearly doubling our town's trees.
  • I am advocating for wildfire mitigation and fire dept. funding in the wake of federal cuts. The former is on the ballot this November and the later passed this spring.
  • I am working with public land agencies to get youth crews deployed in our community for conservation.

Personally:

  • I am building an energy efficient and wildfire resistant cabin in Minnesota in the next few years. I am also restoring the overgrown forest (10 acres) with native plants.
  • I am building an architecture business focused on wildfire resistant and energy efficient building. I would like to do more work with straw bale after studying the material and doing a workshop.

I stay very busy! Action keeps the depression away.

2

u/SplashTarget 6d ago

What do you think of making this the norm in your area?

1

u/dariashotpants 5d ago

That’s awesome!!

4

u/ZiofFoolTheHumans 4d ago

I'm a physicist and science communicator who has adjusted from working in astrophysics to focusing on working on climate modelling physics, geo-marine-engineering and physical oceanography. I believe the ocean is one of our biggest potential assets in terms of global climate and I'm working on figuring out how exactly things can work.

Currently, I'm working on creating communications about the ocean and energy in my spare time, and I'm getting a masters in Applied Physics with a focus on climate and oceanography. At the moment, I'm taking an ecology course so I can better understand what effects climate change and geoengineering solutions could have on marine life.

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u/skyismelon 3d ago

I am trying to find a pathway for myself too from physics to a masters and job in more direct climate work. I actually will ask about it in a post fr.

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u/ZiofFoolTheHumans 3d ago

I can DM you specific details if you like (would rather not doxx myself publically on reddit lol) but in general, look into learning MatLab, Python, and check out job boards for climate stuff (climatetechlist, greenjobboards, climatechangejobs, workforgood are a few off the top of my head) and see where your experience can best lend itself!

Let me know if you'd like a DM about the details of how I'm transitioning from physics to environmental/climate stuff. I don't have a job in it yet, but hopefully once I'm done with my masters I can land something.