Climate Change Gave Rise to These Unusual Careers

Climate change is a long-term shift in temperatures and weather patterns resulting from natural activities, like changing activity in the sun, but since the 19th century, human activities have been the main force behind significant environmental changes. The burning of fossil fuels, the razing of forests, and numerous other man-made effects have created a rise in greenhouse gases, causing heat to be trapped in the atmosphere, which has led to rising temperatures.

With each passing year, the problems wrought by climate change become increasingly apparent. From unusual and destructive storms, a warming, rising ocean, and melting ice caps to drought and a loss of species, the issues we face are quite evident and highly dangerous. Measures are being taken to offset the severity of global warming, and it has also led to the creation of new and unusual careers.

Experts suggest that over 694,000 green jobs will emerge by 2030 in the United Kingdom, alone. For those looking to create a better world, the opportunities arise in often strange ways. (After this article, check out 20 Beloved Foods That Could Disappear Forever Because of Climate Change.)

To compile a list of unusual careers that climate change gave rise to, 24/7 Tempo consulted a range of news, sustainability, and environmental publications including Treedom, CSR Wire, and The Guardian. We then selected unique, and perhaps at times bizarre, jobs emerging thanks to increasing climate change problems. Finally, we confirmed aspects of each job's duties using sites like LiptonTeas.com and Mind.com.

Therapy is a benefit to everyone. Be it psychological lingo infused with mainstream slang or therapy offered via Zoom calls, more and more people turn to therapy to help rid themselves of their ills. You can take it one step further and combine the ethereal nature of Zen with the science-based cognitive strategies of therapy.

Enter ecotherapists, one of the unusual careers created by climate change. Instead of sitting their patients on a leather couch in a stuffy office, ecotherapists take them outdoors. The idea is that people can get to know themselves better by connecting the inner self with the outer self, and the body and mind with nature.

There are many options to choose from within the world of ecotherapy. Strategies include adventure therapy, which involves exciting activities like white water rafting or skydiving, or the more holistic approach of animal-assisted therapy, which seeks to induce harmony in a person by cultivating their relationship with animals.

Be it forest bathing or primal scream therapy on top of a mountain, ecotherapists lead patients to harmony through the natural world and probably have a lot of fun in the process.

With everything trending toward sustainability, it makes sense such practices would extend to include the body after death. While it almost sounds fake, another one of the unusual careers created by climate change is the green funeral director. Eschewing traditional methods of corpse disposal and burial, the green funeral director keeps an ethical eye on the long term.

Whereas an old-school funeral director might preserve a body and set it in a composite wood casket, the green funeral director takes a different, more eco-friendly approach. These new-school funeral directors use little to no embalming methods, and source biodegradable materials. Furthermore, green funeral direction puts a priority on the decomposition process of burial practices.

This takes the form of burial without a vault, using non-toxic materials, preserving natural habitats, and lowering eco-emissions in the process. In many ways, it makes sense, as the earth is designed to use decomposed biological materials for its sustainability and regrowth.

Another unusual career created by climate change is a bicycle fisherman. The career path first took root in Amsterdam, where its hallowed bike culture has led to thousands of old bikes dumped into its many canals. This isn't a Dutch-specific problem, however, as any major city with waterways and bikes finds itself confronting similar problems.

The various metals and tins used to make bikes clog waterways and pose a danger to aquatic animals. Furthermore, these materials disrupt ecosystems. As such, bicycle fishermen trawl waterways in boats. By using magnets and claws, they fish out old bicycles and return the water to a more natural state.

As for all the bike refuse, it will presumably end up in some sort of landfill. Luckily, there's another job on this list that provides a solution for that problem too.

Back in the 1990s, environmentalism took on a more vibrant, radical form. This manifested in the form of eco-terrorists, industry disruptors, and other types of aggressive activists who sought to destabilize the status quo around environmental negligence and destruction.

This, however, often resulted in more imprisoned environmentalists, stricter laws, draconian opinions regarding their activism, and not much positive change for the environment. It seems that younger generations learned from these mistakes and sought to fight the power from within the system instead.

That's where environmental lawyers come in, another one of the unusual careers created by climate change. Instead of protesting in the streets, environmental lawyers take the battle for Earth to courtrooms. Their duties include the protection of wildlife, battling against the causes of climate change by taking on relatively untouchable industries and working to bolster the standing of clean energy companies and initiatives.

Due to habitat loss from farming and timber industries, pandas face fragmentation and increasingly dwindling population numbers. While they aren't extinct, pandas remain an endangered species. As such, scientists monitor the health of baby pandas in the first few years of their lives.

The only problem is, that these pandas will eventually be released into the wild to face life on their terms. Indeed, another one of the unusual careers created by climate change is the panda imitator. Since pandas aren't supposed to have any human contact in their nascent years, scientists dress up as pandas to get close to them and monitor their activity.

Much like baby birds abandoned by their parents for having human scents on them, panda imitators preserve the sanctity of a panda's upbringing by impersonating them while they collect vital data.

As mankind entered the new millennium, new fascinating ways to source meat emerged. Thanks to an awareness of the slow destruction of the natural world thanks to climate change and new innovative technologies to combat it, lab-grown meat became a reality. Since scientists served the first lab-grown meat burger in 2013, the race has been on to create a mass-market, sustainable meat alternative.

This proved successful, as many fast-food establishments now offer lab-grown meat meals. One of the unusual careers created by climate change is the in-vitro meat scientist. Experts suggest that only 40 percent of meat from slaughtered animals will be consumed globally by 2040, so you could get on the ground floor of this anticipated craze by becoming an in-vitro meat scientist.

The funny thing about trash is it's everywhere, and it's not going anywhere. Centuries ago, people started digging big holes to bury all their waste. These holes, or landfills, however, began to fill up over time. This is where landfill miners come in, another one of the unusual careers created by climate change.

Formally called landfill mining and reclamation, this career involves digging through dumps and landfills to find metals like aluminum, copper, and lithium. These materials, perhaps in the form of bikes fished out of rivers, can then be extracted and recycled. This leaves more room for more trash presumably, but at least it's giving some sense of sustainability to the veritable wastelands of garbage across the globe.

The job is dangerous, however, as landfill sites often emit greenhouse gases like methane. While this career remains in an early stage of development, it may prove to be an important career in the years to come.

Speaking of landfills and methane, another one of the unusual careers created by climate change is methane capture. However you slice it, landfills are a problem, but the methane produced by these sites is an even bigger issue. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, landfills remain the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States.

To combat this problem, a new industry sprang up in the form of methane capture. Instead of letting the noxious methane gases float out of landfills and into the atmosphere, methane capture involves the installation of a gas treatment system over the trash site.

This system then captures the methane, cleans it, and processes it for reuse as vehicle fuel or to produce electricity. While a dangerous job, it provides a useful and growing service. In 2019 alone, the EPA revitalized over 600 landfills by installing these methane capture systems.

In recent centuries, mankind has made a slow but steady transition from the fields to the cities. Nowadays, most of the earth's population lives in and around city centers. Combine this phenomenon with the almost absurd, planet-spanning supply chains required to feed a city's people, and you have a lucrative untapped market at your fingertips.

Instead of relying on complex transportation and factors of perishability, urban farmers grow food right on their city streets. By using a combination of aquaponic and vertical growing equipment, urban farmers produce pesticide-free foods that sidestep the messy, disaster-prone supply chains.

This could help restore natural lands to their pre-development states. Furthermore, urban farming often occurs indoors, which uses 98% less water and 70% less fertilizer than large-scale farms.

Much like crows, there are many animals in your backyard very well protected under certain laws. The hazel dormice is one such creature, which was given full protection under the UK's Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This makes deliberately killing, catching, or disturbing a hazel dormouse punishable by six months in jail or an unlimited fine.

Enter the dormice ecologist, another one of the unusual careers created by climate change. This brand of ecologist monitors looks for evidence of these cute animals wherever development for home construction or railways is pending. It's not an easy job to get, however, as becoming a dormice ecologist requires a European Protected Species license from Natural England.

As climate change ramps up, it's likely more animal-specific ecology careers will appear on the job boards.

There are not many jobs out there that allow people to eat or drink to their heart's content and get paid for it. Another one of the unusual careers created by climate change, the ethical tea taster, provides this luxury. Professional tea tasting requires a delicate, complex palette that can appraise the different flavor notes from teas around the world. This palette then carefully judges combinations of different tea blends when creating the perfect mix.

In the contemporary world, however, commodities like tea and coffee involve a long, complex supply chain that often originates from unseemly working conditions. The Ethical Tea Taster considers these factors when judging the taste of tea. Prioritizing aspects such as sustainability, traceability, and logistics, these tasters judge tea varieties ethically and with climate change in mind.

Most people know the term auditor as part of the much-dread statutory body, the Internal Revenue Service. While its auditors evaluate people's tax records and fine them appropriately, energy auditors take their judgments to the electricity humming in the streets. Using newfangled technology like infrared cameras and blower doors, energy auditors assess the energy used by homes and commercial buildings.

As one of the unusual careers created by climate change, energy auditing requires careful examination of not only buildings but each room therein. Unlike tax auditors, however, energy auditors provide a useful, non-punitive service. Their work helps people figure out energy-saving strategies. This proves especially important before adding new energy measures like solar panels or new heating systems.

When taking a walk through their neighborhood, many people fail to realize just how many plants and animals aren't from there. Take the Chinese privet, for example. This unassuming shrub, originally brought over from China, now covers over a million hectares of land across the southern United States.

Much like the invasive and growing number of Burmese Pythons in Florida, invasive species dominate regions without their natural predators. This wreaks havoc on the local ecosystem, threatening birds, plants, and other animals that call it home.

It's become such a problem that both National Parks Services and private organizations have joined the fight. As one of the unusual careers created by climate change, invasive species removers formulate increasingly creative strategies to combat the spread of invasive species and restore habitats to their natural form.

In New York City, for example, invasive species removers have placed goats in city parks to eat all the invasive plants.

A final unusual career created by climate change is that of tree planting. With the rise of cities and major urban areas, trees slowly disappeared from populated zones. This creates several problems, however. Not only do tree covers lower the average temperature of streets and filter pollutants from the area, but they also help create oxygen for a better atmosphere.

The lack of plant diversity slowly destroys any ecosystem, leaving little food for the remaining animals and insects. In response, many cities are taking steps to rectify this problem by planting as many trees as possible. A few years ago, New York City completed its initiative to plant over 1 million trees throughout the city.

While some jobs on this list may require extensive schooling and training, tree planting requires little expertise. All you need is a sapling, and a space to grow it. Permission from the city might help, too. (Next, read about Summer Getaways We're Losing to Climate Change.)