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Many environments. One world.
Our planet is facing extraordinary challenges, including climate change, environmental pollution, loss of biodiversity, and the unequal distribution of critical resources. As a global environmental studies major, you’ll gain a deep understanding of these issues and learn about ways to address them.
Exploring humanity’s complex relationship with the environment, you’ll learn to think critically about topics like sustainability, land use and resource management, energy, and geopolitics. And through our interdisciplinary curriculum, you’ll graduate prepared for careers in such fields as community planning, sustainability planning, environmental services, and conservation.
Global Environmental Studies
MGMT 252
POPCan a business shrink its environmental footprint and still reduce operating costs? Learn how and, as part of a team, work with a client organization to create a customized Sustainability Action Plan (SAP).
EN 277
Investigate how — and if — changes in technology, institutions, and culture might lead to more environmentally sustainable development, and review case studies from the U.S., Europe, and developing countries.
GEOG 157
PLSUse the lens of psychogeography to investigate how human-modified landscapes affect our emotions and behaviors. Explore how those landscapes are shaped, and how they can be modified to bring about social change.
GEOG 106
PLSWater is an emotionally and politically charged resource. Explore our city’s water system via field trips and readings, and grapple with current issues in water and wastewater management, conservation, and planning.
GEOG 119
The Arctic’s rapid warming has far-reaching implications for our planet’s climate. Discover the Arctic during an age of intense human activity, and the interactions between land, atmosphere, ocean, ice, and people.
EN 282
Examine the role of science and the trade-offs inherent in crafting pollution policy in the U.S., how businesses perceive environmental policy and risks, and ways individuals can be motivated to minimize pollution.
PHYS 243
PLSExplore renewable energy sources, the hidden energy resources of conservation and efficiency, and the technical issues that go with converting from a fossil-fuel economy to one that is more sustainable.
MGMT 100
PLSLearn basic management skills, and where and when to apply them. You’ll also learn about social responsibility and business ethics, and apply this knowledge through a community-based learning project.
GEOG 225
Many difficult political issues concern our relationship with the physical environment. Here you’ll study the problems and solutions associated with environmental phenomena that cross political borders of all kinds.
Course requirements for the global environmental studies major are structured so you can understand how economic, cultural, and political processes transform the earth’s environment and are, in turn, shaped by it. To complete the major, you’ll take courses distributed across four components:
If you qualify, you can apply to join Gamma Theta Upsilon, the international geography honor society, which also serves global environmental studies majors. Each year, the Graduate School of Geography, of which the global environmental studies major is a part, recognizes three seniors and one junior with paid awards: the Ellen Churchill Semple Award, the IDRISI GIS Excellence Award, the NCGE Excellence in Scholarship Award, and the Strabo Award.
Learn more about the major and minor in the GES Program Guide (PDF).
Skills you will learn include:
Linda Roth Memorial Activist Scholar Award
Linda Roth was a graduate of the geography Ph.D. program at Clark University and was an accomplished, award-winning forest ecology scientist and a life-long social justice and environmental activist. This award is given to an outstanding global environmental studies major who embodies the principles of scholarship and activism that Linda Roth demonstrated during her life.
Global Environmental Studies Outstanding Student Award
The Global Environmental Studies Outstanding Student Award is given to an outstanding graduating senior who is recognized for academic excellence within the global environmental studies program.
Special facilities available to you include the Jeanne X. Kasperson Research Library at the George Perkins Marsh Institute, the Guy H. Burnham Map and Aerial Photograph Library, Clark Labs for Cartographic Technologies and Geographic Analysis, and earth system science teaching and research laboratories in polar science, forest ecology, and terrestrial ecosystem physiology. Learn more.
During your junior year, you might be accepted into the global environmental studies honors program. Joining the program means you’ll work closely with a professor to create a thesis on a topic of your choice. Examples of recent honors thesis topics are:
Building your foundation
We structure our curriculum around Liberal Education and Effective Practice (LEEP), which connects classroom learning with action through world and workplace experiences.
