The Climate Change Studies minor is an interdisciplinary and integrative program of study involving expert faculty and key courses from intersecting disciplines. It provides students with the necessary science-based background and a broad understanding of the human relationship to climate change including the social and environmental causes, challenges, and opportunities for mitigation and adaption. As climate change is recognized as one of the critical challenges to the sustainability of human society and the environment, the goal of the program is to develop informed and engaged citizens who can use information from multiple disciplines to draw appropriate conclusions and constructively contribute to societal adaptation to global environmental change. It is intended for any undergraduate and will prepare students to address the complex roots and implications of climate change in any number of professional settings as well as be directly relevant and significant to their lives.

Program Objectives

• Understand the science of past, present and future climate change.
• Identify and understand the range of individual and collective human actions contributing to climate change.
• Identify and understand the consequences of contemporary climate change with particular attention to vulnerable populations.
• Critically examine and effectively communicate a range of response strategies for the mitigation of and adaption to climate change.
• Critically examine how humans experience climate change through politics, social organization and/or the arts.

Program Coordination

Climate change studies in an interdisciplinary minor housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, coordinated by an advisory board consisting of representative faculty from the departments and programs with courses included in the program and, as an ex-officio member, the Associate Dean for Curriculum in Arts and Sciences. Advising responsibilities will be rotated by the Departments of Geography and Geological and Environmental Sciences, and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. The advisory board is responsible for ensuring the continuity and consistency of course offerings and academic advising, approving any changes to the program curriculum, and coordinating the capstone experience.