Environmental Studies Courses

The ES Major or Concentration begins (in most cases for Sophomores or First-Year Students) with an introduction to environmental studies, a class focusing on global environmental problems viewed from a scientific perspective but treated within the larger context of political, economic and ethical concerns. Students then select additional courses from a specific track. These track course choices provide a significant focus on discipline-centered studies of the environment, and include areas such as environmental history and ethics, conservation biology, earth system science, environmental chimistry, literature of the environment, and environmental policy. Choices for the remainder of the requirements include a number of off-campus studies as well as a large selection of courses from the other tracks, and some from allied departments. Examples of the former include winter ecology, desert ecology, and tropical ecology, or participation in programs in Costa Rica, south India, Australia, or Superior Studies in northern Minnesota. The capstone seminar, required of ES majors, is also an option as one of the elective choices for the Concentration.

Current Offerings


ES 137: Introduction to Environmental Studies
ES 201: Topics in Global Environmental Politics
ES 202: The Culture of Nature
ES 222: Campus Ecology
ES 226: Conservation Biology
ES 232: Environmental Policy and Regulation
ES 245: Global Climate Change
ES 255: Remote Sensing & Geographic Info. Systems
ES 270: Nature and the American Landscape
ES 276: Environmental Politics
ES 283: Topic: Literature of the Poles
ES 381: Adv. Topic: Land Art in the Fall
ES 399: Senior Seminar In Environmental Studies
BI/ES 350: Biogeochemistry