Public Discussions
The World is ending and how you can get rich
Gokul Mohanty
December 6, 2018
A few years ago, one of my best friends moved to North Carolina for her father’s work. She made me agree to call her every week and for the past couple years, excluding every now and then when something unforeseen has come up, we have, for the most part, kept up to date with our weekly conversations. Recently we were talking about how she really wanted a Tesla, and she brought up how not only would she have a great car, but she would also be saving the environment. That got me thinking.
Usually when we think of climate change and stopping it, it almost always invokes negative emotions. One of the strategies that I often see is fear-mongering. Often times I read articles where the author states that the coastal cities will soon be underwater, there will be a huge virus outbreaks, or millions will die because of famine. All because of climate change. What do all these strategies have in common? They convince people to prevent climate change, not because they care about the environment, but they are afraid. They are being scared into fixing the environment. This conversation made me think that maybe it was time to use a different strategy. Maybe I can talk about the fantastic opportunity that climate change offers.
I am currently a freshman in college and at the moment I only care about two things. One, getting enough food to survive. And two, getting a job after college is over. I believe this is the concern of thousands of American college students every year. With college getting more and more expensive every year, the average tuition is $34,740 per year.[4] Don’t you want a degree that will provide you with a great livelihood. I will tell you all a way how to not only go into a fantastic career, but also save the world and environment at the same time.
The world is going to end. This is a fact. Scientists estimate that the earth’s remaining lifespan is somewhere in the neighborhood of 7.6 billion years, at which point the sun will absorb the earth.[1] That is a long time. And who knows, humanity may survive until that point, but not at this rate. At this rate, there will be catastrophic repercussions within the next hundred years and millions will die. However, we problem also presents a fantastic opportunity.
There is a huge largely untapped market in the renewable energy field, and I am certain that our future careers can be spent on the pinnacle of this movement. As of now, most engineering grads are interested in working for Google or Apple, or any one of the many attractive tech companies. The problem is that these jobs are incredibly competitive. Why not go into a rapidly growing field?
The energy field as a whole is not growing. As is evident by the graph, from 2011-2014, jobs in the two major energy fields, coal and fossil fuels, have gone down. However, during this same time, there has been growth in most of the renewable energy fields. For example, in the wind sector, there was a 16 percent increase in jobs.[3] In the solar sector, there was a spectacular increase. Job growth in geothermal energy, while not as incredible, has increased steadily as well.
From 2016 to 2017, jobs in the solar and wind sector increased by 24.5 percent and 16 percent, respectively.[3] At the same time, the coal industry has been declining. Elon Musk believes that the entire United States can be “100 percent sustainable on solar energy.” As of present, only about 23 percent of households have solar panels.[5] That means 77 percent of the entire nation is an untapped market. Because of this jobs in the renewable energy sector will be incredibly lucrative in the near future.
Now I know what you all must be thinking, all the growth at the moment is great, but what does the future hold? While I cannot state this definitively, it can be predicted rather accurately what the future holds. If we go off of the Department of Energy’s prediction, wind energy will likely be supporting over 600,000 jobs by the year 2050.[3] This is more than six times more than the current number of wind related jobs in the country. The hydroelectric sector is currently home to a little over 300,000 workers at this moment, this figure is expected to break 1.4 million by 2025.[3]
Now let’s get into the salary, because I am certain that this is one of the key factors students use when selecting careers. Let me just say that it is not too shabby at all. The average starting salary of an entry level energy engineer is a little more than $45,000.[2] And this is right out of college with only a bachelor’s. Once specialized, and with a few years under your belt, and you can make a fine career from this. The average salary of a performance engineer is $145,000, and these figures are expected to continue on up.[2]
This is not to mention the entrepreneurial opportunity. There was the dot com era of the 90s where anyone with an internet based idea was able to secure angel funding, then came the social media era where thousands of smart young adult were able to strike it rich if they had a good idea and a little bit of luck on their side. I believe that this next era will be the renewable energy sector. There are many concepts right now centering in this field, such as hydrogen powered cars, and those who are able to successfully implement and commercialize these ideas will be immensely successful.
I believe that we need to stop being paralyzed in fear by climate change and realize that we can stop it, we just need to be proactive. By going into this sector, not only are you saving the planet, and thus millions of lives, but you are going into a fantastic career. Who knows, you too could become the next Bill Gates of the renewable energy era. As always, doesn’t fortune favor the bold?
