The Good and Bad Effects of Climate Change on IT Jobs

Just in case some of the dramatic weather-related disasters of the ‘aughts haven’t convinced you, climate change is gearing up to be one heck of a difficult problem to tackle. You might not think that climate has anything to do with Information Technology (IT) jobs but, combined with the high price of petroleum, there are many changes taking place in the IT industry that can be considered a consequence of climate change.

Some changes are good for most people. Consider how much more likely employers are becoming to allowing their employees to work full or part time from home, as part of a larger telecommuting plan. This saves commuting time, the pollution and expense of commuting by car or mass transit and certainly, a great deal of personal stress. Even if you have a really great stereo in the car, those who would claim to enjoy a 30 mile commute each day (which is a bit below average for most parts of the US) are lying to themselves.

The IT industry is well known for outsourcing to get the best and brightest minds, but where it was once cost efficient for corporations to sponsor contract IT jobs, the cost of housing and transport that were once negligible are now no cheap enough to be offset by labor savings. This means that the same increase in the price of daily goods and transport is causing the industry to become a bit more national at the same time as it’s being spread out to a domestic workforce that is no longer exclusively centralized in urban centers as they once were.

It can certainly be said that the Internet jobs have certainly changed over time. Not only are more and more jobs of all types being conducted over the Internet, but most workplaces now rely upon IT workers to keep things running smoothly.

In fact, IT jobs can have a profoundly positive impact on the environment. Workplaces that have a well-functioning network with solid data management can use far less paper than the typical office. Though this is partly accomplished at the managerial end of things, IT professionals have have the ability to make recommendations for ecologically-sound policies that can save the expense and impact of excessive printing.

Of course, there certainly are downsides to the use of ubiquitous technology in the workplace. For starters, the rare earth materials that are part of all computers are shipped from far flung areas, many of the rarest are only found in China. The combination of mining practices, a lack of environmental regulations and the embedded carbon cost of transporting those items in the form of computer components is quite great.

That said, constantly justifying IT jobs by pushing the technological envelope encourages the purchase of new computers faster than offices that stick with the same software for some time. By the same token, IT workers can again have a positive impact by authoring elegant code that makes the best use of available technology.

It is not always the case that those who fill or evaluate those who do fill contract IT positions are particularly concerned about anything other than the bottom line. However, environmentalism and a real public desire to do something about climate change by reducing carbon emissions wherever possible.

This impacts IT jobs, in a generally positive way. As more an more people move away from using real materials in the real world for media and other types of communication, there are more jobs opening up for people who have experience with all types of IT work. Internet work continues to become more complex, with more and more sites being converted from simple text documents to active web 2.0 applications, requiring new employees that are trained in

Moreover, the increased number of storms and other tumultuous weather events will require people to rebuild with IT jobs that focus on hardware repair and improvement. While IT hardware has not traditionally paid as well as software work, such jobs are also a bit more stable. It is likely that among older IT workers, there will continue to be a trend to expand into other (sometimes related) fields that are intellectually challenging or personally rewarding, such as teaching or the arts.

On the negative side, as more and more people enter what they believe will be a lucrative field, there will be more and more competition for these jobs, especially those that allow people to take advantage of telecommuting and other perks that allow one to save a great deal of money on transit.

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