<p>Hello everyone. I am in a bit of a tight spot here: I am not sure what my primary major should be based upon the issues that interest me. As you all know, the planet is going through drastic climate and environment changes at the moment, including global warming, oil dependency, and the BP spill. I have known for about a year now that "something environmental" is the general direction in which I would like to go, but other than that I am a bit confused.
There are the majors of Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, and also Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering. Now, I am somewhat familiar with what all of them involve on a rough basis, but I don't know which should be my primary major as I search for a college that best fits me.
I want to help try and find a way to combat the issues that we are experiencing as our existence affects the planet we inhabit: Find out new ways to harness energy that do not produce carbon emissions, preventing future catastrophies such as the one we have going on now in the Gulf, and so on. However, there are invisible lines between all of the majors that is just confusing.
Which do you believe would be the best fit for a "primary" college major based upon my interests. (I know that I went around in circles in a way with my thought process and explanations, but at the moment, that is the best that I can do.)</p>
<p>Thank you for taking the time to respond, and please do so fully and with information that backs up your answer. I do not want posts such as solely, "Environmental Science," because that does not help me in any way, shape, or form.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go with any of those “environmental” majors since they tend to be very broad and don’t prepare you for any specific major (Environmental Engineering perhaps being the exception).</p>
<p>I’d say go with any traditional science/engineering major and try to find a subfield where you can apply your interest. For example, if you major in chemistry you could try to work on green chemistry which is a field where reactions are designed to get the same product as before, except using less harsh reagents or having considerably less waste. Pretty much any engineering major can be used in all the new green industries, so you’d just have to tailor your course selection to ones you feel would be applicable for your future job search.</p>
<p>The problem is you’ve defined what you’d like to do, but not how you’d like to do it.</p>
<p>Do you like math? science? The closest fit I can think of for you is chemical engineering. It’ll prepare you for the practical/real world aspects of developing more efficient energy. You could do research on hydrogen fuel cells, reducing pollution produced from a chemical plant, finding new ways of making chemicals that have less environmental impact, etc. You could also be a mechanical engineer and design more effcient machines, work on wind power, etc. However I must warn you that you must really like math to be an engineer.</p>
<p>If you’re looking to “prevent catastophies such as the one we have going on now in the Gulf,” honestly be a policymaker, politician, manager, CEO, etc. that will make sure all safety regulations are followed to prevent this from happening. However if you’d like to be designing a more efficient blowout preventer, better dispersants/cleanup chemicals, etc, be an engineer.</p>
<p>Alternatively if you’re interested in describing (NOT doing something about) climate change, perhaps a science major would be more appropriate. You could be a biologist and study the effects of temperature change on animals. You could be a meteorologist or geologist and study how the earth as a whole is changing.</p>
<p>So the thing in question here is not what you want to do, but what you like doing, instead. You can take almost any undergrad major and make it tailored toward the environmental side of things with the appropriate graduate education and work experience.</p>