Not sure whether to post this here or /climatechange, maybe both?
I'm in a position that would be enviable to probably 99% of this subreddit.
TLDR: After years of being exploited in retail, I moved and now I work in carbon sequestration and ecosystem revival, but there's no money in this important work at personal scale.
A couple of years ago, I moved to New Zealand from Washington.
In Washington I worked retail at a neighborhood hardware store for 13 years. Even though I constantly reminded people that: their boss was not their friend, that unions are good, that employers are only out to exploit your labor; I thought my boss was my friend.
We had it better than most. Higher than average wage for retail, health insurance, good discounts, reliable schedule, etc etc. I would constantly find cost savings or higher margins or new products for my job thinking that we could roll those savings or benefits into employee benefits and wages.
Of course it never happened.
A couple bonuses. An annual Christmas bonus. However, the business was booming. Especially during COVID.
The store was sold to the manager from the owner of 20 years. They paid it off after 3 years due to COVID loans forgiveness and booming business from being an essential business. They immediately purchased a large country estate and horses. The employees are no better off than when I left.
After 2016 I decided it was time to look into escaping the collapsing empire. Both my parents were born in different countries, so I had easy options for citizenship. Neither has been in their birth countries since they were babies. By 2018 I had my NZ passport. 2020 we did a tour of the country. I quit my job and we moved in 2021.
I had lucked into a house that I only was able to “afford” due to home loan and bank conniving and grifting. It was in my favor, but my goodness that whole business was corrupt as f*ck.
My partner owned eir house outright due to grossly overpaid contract tech work (made as much as I made in my entire working life in about 6 months.)
So between us we owned a whole house. Quite the loot. My house sale netted me, tax-free, as much as the previous 10 years of full-time work and side business had grossed. Again, a totally f*cked up system.
So, a one-time chunk of money I never had hope of seeing ever again.
We frontloaded our expenses to reduce future costs. So we bought a house outright in a more rural part of NZ. Insulated it. Put on solar and battery. Got an EV.
The property was in between two reserves, where we could help recover the native ecosystem from the paddocks that have been here for 100ish years. We're replanting natives. Have kicked out the livestock. Are trapping invasive animals.
I'm planning on making a solar pyrolisis chamber for making biochar from invasive weeds and fallen branches. We're doing everything we can personally do for helping the planet.
None of it is paid, though. We're signed up to host campers, considered Patreon, etc. The more time we spend on “content creation” is less time actually planting or doing pest-management.
How to actually bring in money? We're running out of savings quick, but I can't think of more important work to be doing.
Carbon credits are too cheap to support us. Any grants are geared towards 100+ hectares (we have 6.5.)