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Though the methods for solving environmental problems might be new, the skills necessary to develop and implement these solutions are not. Along with the desire and ability to take in a wide array of information and make complex decisions based on this information, environmental engineers must have the ability to plan ahead using the possible developments in this information. Long-term planning abilities, as well as the ability to communicate environmental issues and their solutions to non-engineers, are both essential skills that environmental engineers must possess (Lindner & Nyberg 1973). Without these abilities, the work of environmental engineers would not be effectively developed or implemented; they must be practically applied in the long-term in order to be useful.

The role of the environmental engineer developed essentially as a response to an ethical issue -- namely the degradation of the environment -- and thus every aspect of en environmental engineer's job can be seen as in dialogue with certain ethical issues. This is directly and explicitly observable in the Institution of Engineers of Australia Code of Ethics (2000), which lists working "in conformity with accepted engineering and environmental standards" as a basic ethical tenet of all engineering, and as the primary goal of environmental engineering is to create and uphold these environmental standards it can be seen that environmental engineers necessarily hold up their ethical duties when they perform their jobs successfully. There may, of course, be certain dilemmas that arise in the course of environmental engineer's cuties; pressures to downplay environmental effects from corporate interests, or to divert problems and cut corners, could be very high in this type of work. Truly adhering to the engineering principles of the work however, also mandates adherence to the roper ethical behaviors and standards of the job.

Of all of the areas of engineering, environmental engineering is one of the most rapidly expanding and diversifying fields. There is a great amount of good that can be done in the field, as well as a great deal of interesting and innovating work that would be personally and intellectually fulfilling for the right candidate. From both a personal and a global perspective, then, environmental engineering is an exciting and increasingly relevant new field.