Take cover! We’re verging on an explosion of green jobs

Largely the green movement has moved from cult to classroom, and now finally to mainstream. As more people accept that we must embrace a sustainable way of life to survive as a species, the demand for people who know how to create that reality continues to accelerate. Green jobs are a bright spot in a sticky economy, and anyone looking for a new career could benefit.

The skillset required for green jobs ranges as widely as the types of opportunities. From farmers to urban planners there’s likely a fit for most people. But what other types of opportunities are available?

There are plenty of lists, but Fast Company seems to have a good conglomeration. A brief outline of the job names is below, visit their site for details on each.

• Farmer
• Forester – keeping our forests healthy and expanding them where possible
• Solar Power Installer
• Energy Efficiency Builder – helping to ensure that buildings are green and maximizing their energy usage
• Wind Turbine Fabricator – wind energy is great, but we need wind turbines to make it happen
• Conservation Biologist – preserving ecosystems so that we can observe nature with minimal human interference
• Green MBA and Entrepreneur – earn money and be green at the same time? You bet.
• Recycler – steel is in demand
• Sustainability Systems Developer – programmers can help design the software that powers the technology
• Urban Planner – making our cities green

Beyond predefined jobs like these, there’s also room for creativity. Al Gore is a great example. He’s become an evangelist for the green movement and speaks passionately in various YouTube videos and more official productions like Inconvenient Truth.

There’s also an important peripheral role for anyone in the workforce, which is to question business practices that damage the environment or waste energy unnecessarily. The drive for change in the green movement comes from the bottom up, and individuals asking the right questions will encourage its growth.