Its great that you want to be a force of betterment in the world. There are many different kinds of ecological activists, but whats important is that you become

Its great that you want to be a force of betterment in the world. There are many different kinds of ecological activists, but whats important is that you become the one where your daily life consists of activities you enjoy. Otherwise, you will get burned out soon. The most straightforward way is to look up NGOs (others have posted links) and try to see if you can get a job with the one that seems exciting to you. Change is always brought about by acting in groups, so joining or creating an organization is the best way. My answer to your question 1 is as follows. You are probably too small to make meaningful impact on a global scale - no one is. This is a task for governments. But you can make impact on a local scale. People often forget that there are many many things you can do at the city level to create sustainable living patterns. You can join or create organizations that are trying to fix your local problems. One interesting thing that someone with your background could do is to use art to drive social change. I know a excellent organization in my city that does community theater activities to educate and impact people, and you can definitely see the positive effect they have in the communities and areas they work in.