Every major is a climate major

“For every major, this major,” is Duke’s tagline to promote its offering of climate and sustainability courses. Despite climate-related courses ranging from economics to theater, many students ask, “why should I care?” At an institution where many students are already pursuing an ambitious course load, there is little room for exploration.

It’s apparent that Duke is a pre-professional university. Most students take a career-first approach in designing their education, the majority of students enter into a select few industries after they graduate. Per the Career Center’s 2023 Senior Outcomes report, 57% of seniors who entered the workforce were employed in just four industries (finance, consulting, tech and healthcare). Much ink has been spilled on how pre-professionalism affects Duke culture, so I’ll leave this discussion for another day. Regardless, these trends seem to indicate that there is little room for Duke students to engage with climate issues in their professional lives.

Many people care about protecting the environment but often see it as secondary to pursuing their career goals. But this is a false dichotomy. As the impacts of climate change increase, employers are looking for candidates who can solve environmental challenges. Going green is no longer seen as just a moral imperative, but rather an existential threat to business that must be mitigated.

Still, it can be tough to find intersections between a certain industry and sustainability. Below are Duke’s five main pre-professional paths and how students pursuing one of these paths can make a positive climate impact in their career:

1. Software Engineering

The climate impact of AI is hotly debated. While the electricity needed to power data centers is likely to result in a (hopefully) short-term spike in emissions, AI can enable deep decarbonization by promoting energy-efficiency. Precision energy management, smart agriculture and supply chain optimization are just a few examples of how AI can reduce emissions by streamlining industrial processes.

From a career standpoint, software engineers are needed to build algorithms that enable energy-efficiency. For example, Cirrus Nexus, a New York based IT firm, developed software that reduced data center carbon emissions by 34% via optimizing server workload scheduling. Big tech companies such as Google, Meta and AWS are the largest corporate buyers of renewable energy globally and have dedicated energy teams to manage these transactions.

2. Consulting

Though major financial firms may be downplaying their investments in renewable energy for political reasons, they are still very much involved in the sector. Brookfield, a prominent alternative asset manager, has over 46,000 megawatts of renewable energy generation (enough to power roughly 3.2 million homes) and recently raised $10 billion for its latest energy transition fund. Other segments of the financial services industry, such as private equity, investment banks, venture capital and project finance, are also heavily involved in financing the energy transition. Private equity firms and investment banks tend to focus on already established industries such as wind and solar while venture capitalists take more risky bets on nascent technologies such as white hydrogen and nuclear fusion. 

4. Pre-Med

Climate change is accelerating the spread of diseases by expanding the range of prominent disease vectors, such as mosquitos and ticks.  As a result, tropical diseases will become more common in temperate zones. Extreme heat waves induced by climate change are increasing the number of heat-related deaths and illnesses. Poor air quality is a major culprit of many respiratory diseases.

A new generation of doctors who are knowledgeable of climate threats and their impact on human health will be needed. At Duke, the School of Medicine recently received funding to study the impacts of climate change on health. The Scholars in Marine Medicine program enables undergrads to conduct research at the nexus of oceans and human health. Many opportunities exist to help the human body adapt to the stresses of climate change.

5. Pre-Law

Lawyers will be needed to advance climate policy and promote environmental justice goals. Major climate legislation, such as the Inflation Reduction Act on the federal level and HB951 in North Carolina were made possible by lawyers who painstakingly crafted the appropriate provisions to hold together fractured coalitions. Across the country at public utility commissions, lawyers are advocating for grid optimization and renewable energy integration policies, which will be key in reducing emissions. Attorneys focused on environmental justice hold polluting industries accountable while also combatting false climate solutions such as wood pellets.

While public sector openings in this space are limited, many other avenues are available to practice climate law. Public advocacy groups, such as Earthjustice, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Southern Environmental Law Center frequently hire attorneys. International climate agreements such as those negotiated yearly at the UNFCCC’s COP conferences require lawyers to hash out the details. Other climate and environmental law pathways include land use law, pollution control, energy law, food law and water law.

Even if Duke students aren’t comfortable with deviating from their preferred career path, they can still have a positive impact on climate issues. Progress in all the sectors mentioned here will be required if we are to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. A profession is just a means to an end. The good thing is that you can choose that end. 

Aaron Seigle is a Trinity junior. His pieces typically run on alternate Fridays.