Unconventional career options

Over the past decade, I have traveled with Glenn [Glenn Prickett, senior vice president of Conservation International (CI)] to some of the world's biodiversity hot spots and other endangered regions where CI is working - from the Pantanal wetlands in southwestern Brazil to the Atlantic rain forest on Brazil's coast, from the Guyana Shield forest wilderness in southern Venezuela to the Rio Tambopata macaw research station in the heart of Peruvian jungle, from the exotic-sounding highland of Shanri-La in Chinese-controlled Tibet to the tropical forests of Sumatra and the coral-ringed islands of Bali, in Indonesia. ... In 1998 we went to Brazil [to] Mato Grosso do Sul [which] is at the heart of the Pantanal region. ... The Pantanal nature reserve is Jurassic Park without dinosaurs. Moving downstream we passed scores of caimans lounging on the bank, giant river otters bobbing up and down, with egrets, hyacinth macaws, toucans, ibises, marsh deer, spoonbills, jabiru storks, foxes, ocelots, and rheas (relatives of ostriches) all poking their heads through the forest curtain at different points along our route.

Wow! Now I envy Thomas L. Friedman! Of course it helps is your wife is a member of the CI board :D

For those who are looking to try out something different, I think career with Conservation International is a good option. They also offer internships. Yet another NGO to try your luck with is the Nature Conservancy. Of course, the WWF always needs dedicated people.