Ref No: SSD009

TITLE: GLOBAL REVOLUTION TOWARDS NEW NORMS AND CAREER

INTENSITY

The area chosen to be discussed in this paper is the Environmental Care sector, which
comprises environmental protection, environmental policy, environmental consultation
and such.

As to see what global revolutions need to be done towards the new norms and career
intensity, crucially, there need to be abundant of transparent information for the people in
the area to really objectively think about the career intensity; but sadly, the information
for this sector was just a drop of water in an ocean, compared to sectors such as Human
Resources, Oil and Gas, Technology, Management…just to name a few.

Covid-19 had brought lots of major changes to the face of Earth and its whole
ecosystem, both pros and cons. Economic-wise, everything had been gone down a notch,
making people’s lives harder; not all, but for many. Environment-wise, it has been said
that the conditions are getting better now. Career comes under economic, which mean it
doesn’t matter if one works under the environment sector or not, it still does have quite
the downfall. Even the agricultural sector which is said to be getting good attention
during this crisis, haven’t actually made the overall leap. Looking at the environmental
pollution reduction, it also has the same case; even though it has improved, it hasn’t taken
that wholesome leap.

During this crisis (who knows how long it will take to fully recover out of it), the new
norms had been implemented worldwide, such as social distancing and good hygiene.
Among many consequences of this new norms, one of it is that, there are no more tons of
cars emitting volatile gasses or greenhouse gasses. But how long is this condition going to
retain, is the question! Once the crisis starts to recede, the world’s economy is going to
take the leap of faith to rise again. True, conservationists, environmental consultant and
many more workers under the roof of environmental care would have their job back
eventually; but, it is going to be business as usual, or in an intense way, which could
backfire the Earth in an irreversible way. We do not need that, in a world where even the
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business as usual is causing a chaos for the environment. So, what could the
environmental care career-seekers do?

For one, fresh career-seekers could have their hobby aligned with their career in
environmental care, for example, doing science writing apart from bring a full time
researcher. Also, various start-ups alongside the main career search maybe? For the ones
already existing in the environmental sector, they could make out a hobby of volunteering
for the people that are making an effort out there, or even support the start-ups.

The career intensity will be high for the people in the environmental sector, as they
have evidence that economic slow-down could lead to a better environment, they would
have to look for ways to sustain this effect even after the economy have recovered. We
human can’t ever run away from the nature, as we are part of the whole system; where
nature is our base, our home. Messing up with the environment is basically messing with
our own home and calling out for our own demise.

That’s the reason why the workers in environmental sector are working so hard
themselves, to have humans align with the nature. So, when this involves the whole
human population, the going gets very hard due to two main things; humans tendency to
see the environment as a thing rather than a living and changing entity, and humans
whom aren’t in the environmental care sector have a tendency to not care about the
environmental as ‘it is not part of their job’.

After decades of rummaging through environmental records, and trying to save the
only home we have, which is Earth…finally, it can be seen that some break from human
activities could seriously help the Earth to recover and to see some real results out of
those efforts. But this is not the time for the environmental care sector workers to have a
break; actually the opposite. The career intensity need to increase, starting with
examining, for example, why the Covid-19 and Climate Change which has almost similar
consequences to human which is death, can render different reactions from the public.
During Covid-19, all the human race came together to support each other and curb the
effects to save lives. During Climate Change, which is happening now, people tend to shy
away from acting and tremendous effort is needed to just change one individual’s mind-
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set. This may also be the fault of the environmental care sector worker as well, where
efforts to embrace the climate change deniers and educate them on what is the reality, is
proving to be not as effective as it should be for the rate of booming environmental crisis.
Rather, when someone is denying the climate change, people in the environmental sector,
usually, tend to kick them out and shut them out. Maybe, just maybe, environmental
sector workers need to reunite with others out of their sector as one human race for efforts
to work, rather than advocating for their own cause in their own community, which is to
take care of the environment.

This said work is intense, because it needs deep, and broad knowledge including the
ones out of the environmental sector, such as good solution journalism, arts, music, public
relations, law, and such. In fact, in order for this global revolution to happen, all sectors
should combine as one. But, it should probably start from the ones whom understand the
situation; the environmental care workers. Thus, the career intensity for environmental
care workers would be immense to have that extra skill, out of their scope of work, so that
new connections with the people from other fields could be forged. Though, only one
individual can’t do much to connect the entire population, connecting left and right, back
and forth! Therefore, others from the same environmental care sector should understand
that the ones in their sector whom are making this effort, is indeed human and needs
support and help. Consequently, they should also be willing to lend a hand and try to
connect some more dots of connection and help the process. At the core, it is about
becoming more humane, if you think about it.

So as to say, the workers in the environmental care sector need to put lots of effort,
and the career intensity is higher now than ever to be able to convince other sector
workers to work together with them, as many will be focusing in recovering the economy
now. Thus, good knowledge about what is happening around in the sector is important.

We are aware that, environmental awareness are emerging today, now than ever.
Though, the level of awareness depends on the economic level of the certain area; usually
the country. Developed countries of mostly stable economy are already putting their focus
on developing systems to protect the environment; solid prove of this statement would be
the wide establishments of renewable energy sources, such as the wind farm. Even these
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environmental friendly system, or so they say, have their own damage to the environment.
For example, killing of various endangered bird species by the renewable energy wind
turbines is a good one. Thus, the process of evaluating the pros and cons of a new system,
and then in order to really commercialise them for wide usage, it takes a lot of time,
energy, and money.

When that’s the case, developing countries, with their not-so-posh economy just yet,
are not just ready to put their all in for the saving of the environment until it is absolutely
necessary. But, isn’t it already necessary?

Enough of country talk though. Let’s see the people that the country has. There is this
theory in social psychology, where the prospect of climate change is inducing fear in
many; I quote a statement from Pearson’s Social Psychology, fourth edition text book:

‘Scientists report that climate change is taking place, but the public on the whole is less
certain, making politicians leery about openly endorsing such a frightening possibility’

According to that statement, the general public are being very uncertain if climate change
is actually happening or not, causing the government to think so much before really doing
anything to care for the environment. I’ve heard many people saying that, the government
should enforce policy and such, but it seems like people would be the main reason for the
government to act themselves.

Though, why people aren’t so sure still? Currently, the effects of climate change are
pretty obvious. For example, the sultry sun and hot weather, the increased bushfire
events, so on and so forth. This maybe because of the fact, again from the social
psychology concept, that messages of fear messages “scare people” away from the matter
at hand. Media are good at telling what is happening around us, but that maybe the reason
why people are so afraid of climate change that they ignore it altogether.

There is also another theory in social psychology which we could have a connection
here, which is the theory that says people whom belong to a group feel more in control of
their life and could manage stress more. If that’s the case, and people usually scare away
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from environmental problems such as climate change, as it is ultimately fearful to have

loss the planet we live in, how could a group form out of the ones other than whom are in
the environmental sector? Rather, they’d prefer things to remain ‘business as usual’. This
makes the ones whom want to work in the environmental sector to feel very heavy, out-
casted, abnormal, so on and so forth; although the environmental sector is picking up its
pace during the recent years, still, that isn’t usually the case in an individual’s scenario.

It is called eco-anxiety. Eco- anxiety is hitting almost all of the young people in
today’s world, with internet to inform them of what’s happening but with no resources to
act upon it just yet. After a several years, the young generation is the one whom is going
to live in this Earth, and to see it getting destroyed and actions being made aren’t viable
enough to catch up with the damages being done constantly, is more than enough to cause
them the eco-anxiety. Who in their rational mind, would feel secure, knowing that the
world they are going to live in the future, is actually tearing apart?

Let’s see the case of Greta Thunberg. She is a 17 year old Swedish Environmental
Activist, started the School Strike for Climate on 2018. In one of her international
conference talks, she told that she shouldn’t be touring the world and giving talks, but to
be in school and learn things. Her point of view wasn’t cared for though, even by the ones
by her side for her cause. She wanted the adults to be very responsible of what is
happening in the environment, cure it genuinely rather than beating around the bush and
lend the young generation a better upcoming world.

So, how are we getting our global revolution for a better upcoming world anyway? For
that, I’d like to display a quote by the British naturalist, Charles Darwin:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one
most adaptable to change.”

Changes are already being made in the environment, and they can be seen. Question is,
are we changing for the better? Who knows; maybe the global revolution for
environmental care sector lies within those quoted lines. My best bet, is to be humane,
now more than ever.
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References and Appendices

1. Branscombe N. R.; Baron R. A. (2017). Social Psychology. (4th Edition).

England, UK: Pearson.

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of Youth. (2020, April 15). From anxiety to agency: How to step up, rather than
shut down, in the face of crisis. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from
https://www.voicesofyouth.org/blog/anxiety-agency-how-step-rather-shut-down-
face-crisis

3. Eco-Business. (2020, April 13). Conservation careers negatively affected by

Covid-19 pandemic. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://www.eco-
business.com/opinion/conservation-careers-negatively-affected-by-covid-19-
pandemic/

4. Ng, J. (2020, May 07). Special Report: Covid-19 fallout: Jobs under threat.
Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/special-
report-covid19-fallout-jobs-under-threat

5. Ol; Dave (Host).  (2019, September 29). #150: Greta [Audio podcast]. Retrieved

from http://www.sustainababble.fish/?p=890

6. Saadat, S., Rawtani, D., & Hussain, C. M. (2020). Environmental perspective of

COVID-19. Science of The Total Environment, 728, 138870.
doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138870