I’m an adult considering a change of career. I have no relevant education or experience. I’m at least an hour away from anywhere that could be considered a major city and would not like to move. My only requirements are that I am actively helping our ecosystem thrive and I’m not dirt poor. What’s a position I could reasonably obtain?
Farming?
That’s seasonal work around here. But is that helping the ecosystem? I realize how much it hurts is dependent on the farm in question, but is there a way to farm that actually counters what humans do against the environment?
Look for organic or community supported agriculture (CSA) farms. In general, you need someone with a lot of battle-tested knowledge to actually do something substantial. Farming is extremely important for human ecology and done right, agriculture can actually extend a biosphere reach sustainably, while done wrong can destroy it’s livelihood. Farming literally makes our civilisations possible and will be a big part of the problems we need to face once climate change actually gets into gear and every arable soil is sought after.
You can absolutely farm in a sustainable way, wrecking the environment for profit really only came about when mechanised farming / large machinery / giant monocultures of herbicide-resistant patented seed became a thing in the last 100 years or so
Aristotle and Plato supposedly already complained about deforestation. Degradation of the biosphere (who extinct the European Elephant?) is old.