亲爱的安妮：我的一个儿子和一个女儿刚刚进入大学，我恰好读到您最近的一篇文章，其中讲到选择感兴趣的专业。我女儿打算学习环境工程专业，我不知道这个选择是否明智。在我看来，几年前，许多人都在谈论“绿色”工作岗位，可最近这种热潮似乎消失了，甚至很少能听到与可持续发展领域有关的新增岗位。我自然支持孩子们在大学发掘自己的兴趣爱好，但我也希望他们在毕业之后，能在所选择的领域中找到机会。您怎么看？——M.M

    亲爱的M.M.：一般来说，如今凡是与“工程”有关的专业都是上佳的选择。不同行业的雇主们一直在疯狂争抢STEM（科学、技术、工程与数学）毕业生，他们根本供不应求。

    此外，四年之后，这种人才短缺或许会更严重。据美国劳工部（The Department of Labor）预测，未来几年，STEM岗位空缺将增加17%。许多高等院校的学生似乎也意识到了这种趋势：青年成就组织（Junior Achievement）与ING U.S.基金（ING U.S. Foundation）最近进行的一项调查就显示，约有一半（46%）美国青少年表示，他们希望从事STEM职业。尽管如此，这个比例相比2012年仍然减少了15%。

    而据美国劳工统计局（Bureau of Labor Statistics）预测，截至2020年，环境工程专业的就业将增长22%，高于平均水平（而且，环境工程师目前的平均收入约为80,000美元）。为了让女儿有更好的前途，你或许可以建议她选择水文地理学和土木工程学等学科，不论这些学科是否是必修课。

    朱迪斯•阿尔伯特说：“目前和未来几年，对环境工程专业需求最大的领域是水供应管理。美国许多地区都面临严重水资源短缺问题，而且供水基础设施陈旧或漏水。这将是长期而巨大的工程挑战，解决这个问题需要很多人手”，而且会创造很多工作岗位。

    阿尔伯特是纽约市“绿色”公司与风险投资家联合企业环保创投（Environmental Entrepreneurs，E2）的执行董事。这个非营利组织的800名成员已经创建或投资了超过1,400家可持续能源和其他环保领域的公司。这些公司目前的员工超过500,000人。

    据环保创投报告，仅今年第二季度，商界和各地方和州政府新启动了至少58个清洁能源与交通项目，约创造了40,000个工作岗位——比去年同期的37,000个略有增加。环保创投的新网站介绍了新工作岗位的所在地：目前可以登陆美国绿色就业交互式地图按州（加州遥遥领先）或行业（太阳能、风能、绿色建筑等）进行搜索。

    阿尔伯特承认，与前几年相比，绿色岗位的热潮略有消退，但并不意味着绿色行业陷入了停顿。她说：“绿色活动和工作岗位都在实实在在地持续增长。许多变化都非常微妙。比如，通常不会被视为“绿色”的许多行业，目前都在大力推广可持续发展。”

    比如说呢？阿尔伯特称：“日产汽车公司（Nissan）在田纳西州生产电动汽车，在它的停车场里安装了汽车电池充电器，这些都是清洁能源领域的工作岗位，尽管组装线上的工人仍会认为他们‘只是汽车行业的从业人员’。沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）表示希望减少包装，以帮助减少垃圾，此举推动整个供应链成本上千家供应商做出了转变。”

    Dear Annie:Since I have a son and a daughter starting college right now, I read your recent article on picking a major with interest. My daughter plans to study environmental engineering, and I'm just wondering, is that a smart choice? It seems to me that there was a lot of talk about "green" jobs a few years ago, but now that seems to have faded away, to the point where you hardly ever hear anything about job creation connected to sustainability. I'm all for my children pursuing their interests while they're in college, but I'd also like to see them get opportunities in their chosen fields after they graduate. What do you think? -- Monterey Mom

    Dear M.M.:As a general rule these days, any major that includes the word "engineering" is an excellent bet. Employers across a wide range of industries are snapping up STEM (for science, technology, engineering, and math) grads by the thousands, and there aren't enough of them to go around.

    Moreover, the shortage may be even more acute four years from now. The Department of Labor forecasts a 17% rise in STEM job openings over the next few years. Many high school and college students seem to be getting the message: Almost half (46%) of U.S. teens say they want to aim for STEM careers, according to a new survey by Junior Achievement and the ING U.S. Foundation. Even so, that's a 15% drop from the number who said so in 2012.

    As for environmental engineering, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects faster-than-average employment growth of 22% by 2020 (and notes that environmental engineers currently earn a median salary of around $80,000). To boost your daughter's prospects, you might suggest she take a few courses in hydrology and civil engineering, whether or not they're required.

    "One of the biggest areas of demand for environmental engineers, now and in the years ahead, is water-supply management," says Judith Albert. "Many parts of the U.S. are facing serious water shortages plus an old, leaky water-supply infrastructure. It's a tremendous engineering challenge that isn't going away, and solving it will take a lot of talent" -- and create a lot of jobs.

    Albert is executive director of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), a New York City-based consortium of "green" companies and venture capitalists. The nonprofit's 800 members have started or invested in more than 1,400 enterprises in sustainable energy and other earth-friendly fields. Those companies now employ about 500,000 people.

    In the second quarter of this year alone, E2 reports, businesses and local and state governments launched at least 58 new clean-energy and transportation projects, generating almost 40,000 jobs -- a slight increase over the 37,000 such jobs created in the same quarter last year. E2's new website shows exactly where they are: An interactive map of green employment in the U.S. is searchable by state (California leads the pack) or by sector (solar energy, wind power, green building, and so on).

    Albert acknowledges that, as you note, there isn't as much fanfare about green jobs as there was a few years ago, but that doesn't mean things have come to a halt. "There is a real and continuing growth in green activity and jobs," she says. "A lot of what's changing now is subtle. For one thing, a big push for sustainability is spreading through industries that people don't usually think of as 'green.'"

    Such as? "When Nissan builds electric cars in Tennessee, and installs car-battery chargers in its parking lots, those are clean-energy jobs, even though the people on the assembly line may see themselves as 'just car guys,'" Albert says. "And when Wal-Mart (WMT) puts the word out that they want less packaging, to help lessen the clutter in landfills, that pushes change all through the supply chain" at hundreds or thousands of vendors.