Briefly Noted

Hey millennials

By Jane Lyon

It is year 2017, and an orange-skinned, reality television star has risen as ruler of the United States. The new Commander in Chief has all kinds of billionaire friends joining him in the White House. We’ve got Rex Tillerson (former dude running Exxon Mobile, i.e oil spill and covering up scientific proof of global warming) as Secretary of State and Rick Perry, a climate denier, as Energy Secretary. My personal favorite, climate denier Scott Pruitt, driven to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency, is now the agency’s head administrator!

No, this is not a new dystopic Orwellian novel. This is legit. Real. You’re probably sick of reading about it and talking about it. It’s messed up. So what are you going to do about it?

Today more than ever, millennials like ourselves are forging momentous paths into the green economy. We know it’s the future. Our valley is full of fresh career/educational opportunities. There are so many ways to put environmental skills to work and today it is more significant than ever to move into a truly green, sustainable economy.

CATALYST staff recently attended the Intermountain Sustainability Summit at Weber State University. Keynote speaker and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson reminded us to not let the feds get us down. She wanted us to understand how much power we have on the state and city level and how local initiatives are already showing success. Our home could become a mecca for clean energy and a place free from fossil fuels. It’s the future.

I’m working on a story about green careers, and interested in hearing about the educational paths to those careers. If this applies to you, I would like to hear from you. Tell me about how you are forging an ecologically aware career path that will positively impact our planet and help future generations to come. Send me an e-mail, let’s chat.

— Jane Lyon, Jane@CatalystMagazine.net

This article was originally published on April 6, 2017.