Environmental Studies
Earth's environment is maintained through complex feedback mechanisms which, over geologic time, have created an environment replete with myriad life forms and incredible biological, geological, and cultural diversity. Humans have always affected their environment, but since industrialization, the nature and scope of human impact has increased dramatically.
Our current use of natural resources is spiraling due to consumption-based economies and increasing demand by humans for necessities such as food, energy, and fresh water. Human activities have led to widespread air, water, and soil pollution, and set in motion long-term and troubling changes in our climate, new extinctions, unsustainable patterns of resource extraction and waste creation. Poverty and racism further exacerbate resource access disparities and threaten the livelihoods and survival of many humans around the world.
Environmental concerns will be with us for generations as we work toward a more sustainable way of life. The Environmental Studies program structures a liberal arts education around these concerns and prepares students for entry-level positions, as well as graduate study, in fields related to environment and sustainability.
Episode 5: Matt Lamanna ’97 Matt Lamanna ’97, associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, shares the excitement and insights of his career…
Jack Polentes ’21 has been awarded the prestigious Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship, giving the geoscience major a paid 10-week internship with researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration…
For Bethany Kharrazi ’21, “lake week” is perhaps the best part of her summer water quality research. One week each month, she and Professor of Environmental Studies John Halfman collect water…
