Environmental Engineering

I decided to do a bit more research on my specific field of engineering. Engineering is all about solving problems. Environmental engineers, specifically, look to address problems relating to ecological processes and how they can impact the planet. Duties could include

• Designing projects that lead to environmental protection, such as air pollution control systems, operations that convert waste to energy, or water filtration
• To obtain, update, and maintain plans, permits, and standard operating procedures
• Analyze scientific data and do quality-control checks
• Monitor the progress of environmental improvement programs
• Make sure facilities and programs are in compliance with environmental regulations

Some of these tasks may seem very boring but I don’t think I would mind doing most of them. I don’t necessarily feel a strong passion about the environment. I won’t scream at someone for not recycling. I wouldn’t chain myself to a tree to stop it from getting cut down. But, I do happen to share the opinion that humans are contributing to the world’s gradual climate change through our industrial emissions and poor waste habits. Knowing this, it’s going to be increasingly important to address these issues in the future. Environmental engineering looks to combat a lot of these problems and I think it will be a growing field in the near future, all contributing to my choice in major.

Environmental engineers make an average of eighty-four thousand dollars as an annual salary. When compared to most other engineers, this is slightly under average. But compared to most other occupations, it’s still significantly higher. I think this is fair compensation for the job, and I would be happy making over eighty thousand a year when I get older. Most jobs in the field only require a bachelor’s degree, which appeals to me because I really don’t want to spend two extra years in college. I would consider getting a Master’s degree if the company I worked for covered the cost, but I don’t need to pile on more debt than I’m already going to have.

I never understood really who hired environmental engineers and I definitely got a better sense of that after researching further. This table is a good illustration

Engineering services	28%
Management, scientific, and technical consulting services	20
State government, excluding education and hospitals	15
Local government, excluding education and hospitals	7
Federal government, excluding postal service	6

Overall, I learned a lot about my field and I’ll probably still stick with it as my major as of right now.

-Danny

Source: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/environmental-engineers.htm