Updates: 11/28/2017 minor font changes in one area LET US ALSO FOCUS ON JOBS IN ENVIRONMENTALISM It is encouraged that groups like this learn new ways to foster environmentally friendly employment for an increasingly wide range of people so that income and environmentalism go hand in hand. We need to turn the image of environmentalism as being anti-job friendly (particularly in arenas like coal or oil and gas) around so that people’s first reaction to environmentalism is “healthy opportunity.” This includes reducing the opinion that “there is no money in environmentalism - it’s all low pay, part-time, pay without benefits, or volunteer work.” People need to match real world ways of making a living with doing things for the earth and it is up to all of us to make these jobs (or career possibilities as in self-employment) available to as many people as possible - not just a few elite educated groups with inner-circle connections to other people in the environmental field. Environmentalism should not be another good old boy/gal type of network. Sometimes this network is about youth culture, “hippie cool” or “right kind of college.” Plan on letting a certain number of people in the door without references or good job histories as long as they pass criminal background checks - and also learn to identify and work with a certain number of those who do not pass or have good criminal background checks. Everyone needs a source of income and if we are always too selective in who we hire, we close the door to many people who need that money. Environmentalism should be about opportunities for a whole better way of life for everyone and everything on the planet. It means taking a fresh look at how we all need to survive and maintain our existences. Not everyone walks in the door with education, skills, job stability and good references under their belt and we need to start being more realistic and flexible by finding what works for different personalities - different strokes for different folks. This in and of itself will help clean up the planet by getting people off the streets, out of poverty and saved from unhappy dead-end jobs. It can also act as a type of real therapy for some by allowing people to be themselves while finding their niche. Work should not be seen as a form of punishment or a grueling marathon run. It’s a matter of not trying to fit round objects into square holes, but trying to find jobs and activities that are going somewhere for people and that match more directly who they really are. Getting a decent paying job should not just be for the people who are clever enough to figure out how to get them, or for those who had the right advantages in life. Some people had enough money but did not have a healthy emotional upbringing, so this is a type of disadvantage often difficult so see on the surface when doing an employment check. Others were raised in poverty and hard times. Happy jobs with solid pay should be the kind of opportunity available for everyone; we should not leave least desirable paying jobs with the least satisfying work conditions and/or low number of hours to those people with nowhere else to turn. Environmentalism should be about constructive activities for both humans and the planet and the recognition that not everyone looks the same when they walk in the door looking for a job. Sometimes the best, most sincere or most highly creative/insightful workers might be those with poor employment records and a messy background check. This does not denounce nor distract from those who have stable work histories and exemplary resume material, either. Sometimes it is best to have a mix of backgrounds and personality types to give an organization vitality. Some people might work better with long hours and longer periods of time off while others might work better with short spurts spread out over time. Either approach might be thought of as “flex-time” well known to many of us, but this might need even more revamping in certain contexts. Environmentalism should be about finding what works on a number of different levels and working with the concept of flow in both humans and the natural world. Forced artificial structures are often probably killing all of us in one way or another.

A vision of sustainable and meaningful ways of providing a way for income survival is like a bridge into the future. Consider the concept of flow rather than force.

Human Issues Jobs in Environmentalism