Thread: envionmental research - which field of science will save earth?

I want to be a professor, researching ways to help the environment. My major was originally gonna be biochem, bc I was interested in nutrition at first. I feel like canging it to environmental science may be too general to make any advancements in researching. I was thinking of going into someting more specific to ackle a big environmental issue. I want to find a way to curtail global warming, deforestation, ocean acidification, and/or any part of the sixth mass extinction. I understand that a lot of this takes changes in society and our mentality towards the environment, but I think my calling is more experimenting in a lab than convincing people to change (not at all denying someone needs to do that). So which area could best be helped by somenew invention or discovery? Bioengineering to make a frankenstein plant that's incredibly efficient at filtering pollutants. Marine chem to fix the oceans ph? Climatogy to fix the air? Or maybe just taxonomy so we at least know the species going extinct were there?

I'm partial to the geological sciences, myself. Water is going to become the most vital and fought over resource on the planet in the coming decades.

Water is indeed going to become the most vital resource before long. From potable water to waste water, water as a source of hydro-electricity, there should be plenty of scientific avenues to make a valuable contribution.
Apparently some others think so as well. Here's a link that I just came across that looks to be interesting...

Water structure and science

Politics.

Originally Posted by John Galt

Politics.

Benevolent dictatorship.
(Benevolent according to my standards, goes without saying.)

Yeah, I'm reading through the Sixth Extinction right now, and water, specifically the acidity and amount CO2 in the oceans, seems like a biggie. I think a lot can be solved by solving the problem of deforestation, but that seems to depend a lot more on the political realm. So what major would I go into? I looked up marine chem, and that's one, but just from the specificity of it, it doesn't seem like something offered everywhere