Climate Career - Computer Information Systems

Right now, I’m going to Western Michigan University to pursue a degree in Computer Information Systems. My idea for a career is to work with businesses to help them integrate technology into their business systems in order to survive in today’s computer technology-driven environment. What does this have to do with climate change? Well, I can think of a couple of instances where this career path would intersect with climate change. For example, I could help an organization collect and organize climate data in order for analysts to easily access that information and use it to study global warming and make predictions about the future. Or, I could help somebody who’s built a climate app to either provide useful information to users, or to organize large amounts of user data (e.g. basic information, statistics about how they use the app, survey responses, etc). Or perhaps I could be working with a company that has nothing to do with climate change, but still be working with information regarding some aspect of global warming (statistics, info on climate change activists, data for political science, etc). The point is that almost everything has something to do with computers these days. Every day, chances are you’re interacting with and relying on countless computer systems. Your cell phone is a computer, your car probably has a computer in it, your laptop. Every business uses computers in a number of ways, from cash registers to conference calls. Basically, this career bound to overlap with climate change in numerous areas, such as interacting with social media information regarding climate science, working with climate organizations’ information systems, or working with a company in the auto industry using data in order to make a more climate-friendly vehicle.