Salary
Average Salary: $63,570
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $2,654,000
If you aren't corrupt, the money is pretty good—you're looking at around $70,000 per year on average (source). If you are corrupt, you can green light all kinds of projects and make a bundle, although it'll likely come in cash in suitcases. What do you think BP would pay for an enviro to tell people that the Gulf spill is now cleaned and A-okay?
When you're just starting out, you'll be taking home around $35,000 annually, but it can go up quickly from there, and you could easily hit the $50,000 threshold within just a couple of years and be making $75,000 or more in less than a decade (source).
Government jobs tend to pay the best; if you're employed by a private company, you're generally going to be making $10,000-$15,000 less. Part of the reason for this difference in salary is that our government has a ton of extra cash on hand, due to them not having a huge debt or anything. Cough, cough.