WHEN Ben Southall, a charity worker from Ropley in Hampshire, became after winning a competition to bag the 鈥渂est job in the world鈥�, many of us turned a shade of green. According to the job advert, he was being paid by the Queensland tourism board to 鈥渆xplore the Great Barrier Reef, swim, snorkel, make friends with the locals and generally enjoy the tropical Queensland climate and lifestyle鈥�. Sounds amazing, no? Publicity stunts aside, surely jobs like that don鈥檛 exist in real life?
But they could. If you have an environmental, conservation or earth sciences background, you too could be enjoying some of the most beautiful places and breathtaking experiences this planet has to offer, all as part of your job. True, the luxury villa Ben enjoyed may not come as standard but at least you鈥檒l have the satisfaction of doing something good for the planet. So lie back, relax and enjoy the ride as 快猫短视频 takes you on a tour of the world鈥檚 best environmental jobs.
Wish you were鈥nderwater?
Fancy getting paid to snorkel and dive at some of the world鈥檚 most colourful coral reefs? Meet Dan Exton. He is marine research and operations manager for , an organisation that arranges scientific expeditions to exotic locations around the world. Students are charged tuition fees in return for a chance to join conservation research projects abroad, working alongside established scientists.
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Exton, who worked with Operation Wallacea during his marine biology undergraduate, master鈥檚 and PhD field projects, now coordinates its marine research in six different countries. He is about to visit a site in Honduras where the team is comparing the effects of two different coral reef management strategies. Exton spends about six months of the year in the field; the rest of the time he鈥檚 based at the organisation鈥檚 offices in Lincolnshire, UK.
Reality check: Most people can only dream of the adventures and travel depicted in programmes such as the BBC鈥檚 Blue Planet, says Exton. 鈥淏eing able to do it for my job is a privilege.鈥� Yet one of the hardest things, he says, is having to 鈥渃ope with friends鈥� and family鈥檚 impression that you are on holiday half the year when it is really a proper job without five-star resorts! The food can be boring, it鈥檚 hot and sticky, with no air conditioning, there is patchy electricity at best, and biters and stingers constantly lurk both on land and in the water.鈥�
鈥n ice?
Heat and bugs aren鈥檛 an issue for engineer . He is about to return to Antarctica, where he will be part of a team drilling into a hidden lake thousands of metres beneath the ice. Touted as 鈥渙ne of the most exciting and ambitious explorations of our time鈥� the unprecedented will collect water and sediment samples to search for life and clues about the planet鈥檚 past in this extreme environment.
Webb co-designed the unique hot water drilling system that will penetrate the ice sheet and spent eight weeks last winter dragging 70 tonnes of equipment across 250 kilometres of untraversed ice in a four-person team, in preparation for this year鈥檚 drilling season. 鈥淲e had to tow the sledges with piston bullies, the same machines that groom ski slopes,鈥� says Webb. When not in the field, Webb is based at the in Cambridge, UK.
Reality check: Although Webb has worked on previous Antarctic projects, he says the Lake Ellsworth expedition is in a league of its own: 鈥淲e were travelling over land that has never seen a vehicle before and sleeping in tents at -35 掳C. The extreme cold makes it very difficult to do anything: boiling water, donning all the layers of clothing, your job鈥� everything takes twice as long as usual. But the Antarctic is so clean and beautiful, it makes up for it. It is a stunning, peaceful place to be.鈥�
鈥board a sailboat?
Whilst Andy Webb was traversing the ice, Giada Franci from Italy was engaged in quite a different sort of crossing, sailing across the Atlantic on her 12-metre-long yacht, Kaitek, in the first leg of a four-year scientific expedition around the world. The boat monitors water temperature, salinity and fluorescence, and the information can then be fed into ocean current models and weather simulations.
Franci, who has a doctorate in marine environmental science, is co-owner of Kaitek and co-founder of , an Oxford-based company that connects scientists and recreational sailors by enlisting privately owned sailboats as environmentally friendly platforms for oceanographic research.
Reality check: Working on such a project means living in cramped conditions and, for most people, it won鈥檛 pay the bills. However, in Franci鈥檚 opinion, the ocean experience more than pays for such drawbacks: 鈥淣othing compares to feeling the power of nature during sailing. On some days, huge waves push your boat into the water with enormous force, on others you wake up at 7am, the sea is flat and you dive into the water for the most amazingly regenerating experience ever.鈥�
鈥n the ocean floor?
Geohazard specialist Mike Clare is more interested in what lies beneath the sea. Clare works for , a company that investigates and analyses the geology of the seabed for clients who wish to build offshore structures such as oil and gas platforms, pipelines and wind farms.
Clare, who has a master鈥檚 degree in geology, can spend half of the year offshore in waters anywhere from Europe to Australia or west Africa, sending and drills into the abyss to take 鈥渇orensic geological evidence鈥� from the ocean floor. Pictures and samples reveal clues about landslides, sediment avalanches, eruptions or earthquakes that happened in the past and allow him to model future risks so offshore structures are only built where it is safe. The rest of his time is spent at the company鈥檚 offices near Oxford, where he heads up its Engineering Geology and Geohazards team.
Reality check: 鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting to go to deep-water geological frontier areas,鈥� says Clare. Sightings of mating humpback whales or weird deep-sea creatures are another perk. The worst aspects of offshore work, says Clare, are related to the weather: 鈥�10 to 15-metre waves that make you seasick and stop you from sending out the drills can be a downer.鈥�
鈥n the jungle?
Back on dry land, Finnish forest ecologist Terhi Riutta collects leaves and digs into the soil of the world鈥檚 oldest rainforest in Borneo. She is part of SAFE, the , which kicked off in 2010 and will run for another nine years. The project tracks the transition of every aspect of the ecosystem, from secondary rainforest, through logging and conversion to palm oil plantation, in what the organisers pitch as 鈥渙ne of the world鈥檚 largest ecological experiments鈥�. Riutta investigates carbon and water dynamics at SAFE as part of her postdoc position with the University of Oxford.
Reality check: is one of more than 60 at SAFE, so the crowd is large and diverse. 鈥淲e have a lovely community here, but it can be hard to never be by yourself. Fifty centimetres between mosquito nets is all that separates my personal space from that of my cabin mates,鈥� says Riutta. The glimpses of orang-utans or clouded leopards make up for it, though, and even the leeches aren鈥檛 as bad as many fear: 鈥淎s long as you wear these ridiculous long socks over your trousers, they keep off.鈥�
Know before you go
Ready to go and bag your own dream environmental job? The good news is that all of the projects and organisations featured here offer opportunities to get involved. Competition can be stiff, however, and paid jobs tend to go only to those who have proved they have both the right expertise and the guts to stick it out in whatever adverse conditions you may encounter in the wild. Unsurprisingly then, everybody 快猫短视频 spoke to recommended getting field experience under your belt as soon as you can.
鈥淲e always look for people willing to accept a voluntary position, at least initially,鈥� says Dan Exton of Operation Wallacea. 鈥淚t takes a diverse set of skills. You have to prove yourself not only as a scientist, but also in terms of logistics and working under pressure,鈥� he adds. Recruiters will look for evidence that people have 鈥渁 genuine interest in working away from home, a sense of adventure and the ability to do your job in a very harsh environment鈥�, says Andy Webb of the British Antarctic Survey.
Academic rigour is equally important, emphasises marine scientist Giada Franci: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not enough to dream of whales and dolphins, you have to be prepared to study really hard and become outstanding, as only the best people get funded, especially now that science budgets have been cut everywhere. Knowledge and passion together are your ticket to do this job.鈥� Make sure that you apply your studies early on, though, recommends National Trust animal ecologist Peter Brash (see 鈥�Adventures back home鈥�): 鈥淭he biggest gap in new graduates is a good grasp of species, so get to know them! Spend as much time with your field guides as with your textbooks.鈥�
Even Ben Southall, who won the competition to become caretaker of an Australian island in 2009 and who continues to work part-time as a Queensland Tourism Ambassador to this day, didn鈥檛 just chance across the 鈥渂est job in the world鈥�. He put in years of sweat roughing it across Africa to get the experience that convinced the judges he was the best of the 34,000 applicants. His advice is to get out of your comfort zone at least once to find out if an adventurous job could be right for you: 鈥淪tepping aside from the standard career route can be difficult but I told myself I鈥檝e got only one chance on planet Earth and I want to use this opportunity. It became much easier after that!鈥�
Adventures back home
If working in far-flung places isn鈥檛 your thing, there is also plenty of excitement to be found closer to home. How about flying into the eye of the storm as Phil Rosenberg, an atmospheric science postdoc at the University of Leeds, occasionally does? Rosenberg works on the , which sends scientists into storms to study their dynamics and cloud particles aboard what is essentially a . 鈥淲e get tossed around quite a bit,鈥� he says.
No stomach-dropping storms await animal ecologist Peter Brash when he goes out to survey the wildlife at sites around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The information he collects goes back into species and habitat databases and helps site managers determine the best way to care for an area. 鈥淚 have been obsessed with wildlife since I was 10 and I still have to pinch myself that I get paid for doing the work I love whilst visiting the most beautiful places in the country,鈥� he says.