Major Requirements – 78 Total Credits
In most cases, majors must complete 78 credits in the course categories listed below, which includes nine credits devoted to a group-based comprehensive exercise. This comprehensive exercise is described in detail on the Environmental Studies website. In exceptional circumstances, majors may do an individual comprehensive exercise for six credits, in which case they must complete 72 credits for the major.
Core Courses – Required 18 credits
- BIOL 210: Global Change Biology
- ECON 271: Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment
- HIST 205: American Environmental History
Required Supporting Courses – Required 12 credits
Lab Science Course – (6 credits)
- BIOL 126: Energy Flow in Biological Systems and Lab
- GEOL 110: Introduction to Geology & Lab
- GEOL 120: Introduction to Environmental Geology & Lab (not offered 2025-26)
- GEOL 125: Introduction to Field Geology & Lab
- GEOL 130: Geology of National Parks & Lab
- PHYS 131: Introduction to Physics: Newtonian Mechanics and Lab
- PHYS 152: Introduction to Physics: Environmental Physics and Lab
and one of its prerequisites (Physics 131, 142, 143, 144 or 145)
Economics Course – (6 credits)
- ECON 111: Principles of Microeconomics
This requirement may be waived with an Economics AP score of 5 or Economics IB score of 6 or 7.
Required Methods Courses – Required 12 credits
- ENTS 120: Introduction to Geospatial Analysis & Lab
- STAT 120: Introduction to Statistics
OR STAT 230: Applied Regression Analysis
OR STAT 250: Introduction to Statistical Inference
OR MATH 240: Probability
This requirement may be waived with a MATH Stats AP Score of 4 or 5, and with the completion of a higher level STAT course.
Elective Courses – Required 24 credits
Twelve credits should consist of Society, Culture, Policy electives and twelve credits should consist of Environmental Science electives. Any one of these elective courses may be used to satisfy the 300-level topical seminar requirement in section VI, below.
In addition, students will work with their adviser to develop an interdisciplinary focus within environmental studies, such as food and agriculture, conservation and development, energy and climate, landscapes and perception, environmental justice, or water resources. This focus will be exhibited and explained in an e-portfolio (the “ENTS Profile”), to be completed by the end of Fall term senior year. Electives should be chosen to reflect this focus.
Society, Culture, Policy Courses – (12 credits)
- ARTH 267: Gardens in China and Japan (not offered 2025-26)
- ARTS 113: Field Drawing
- ARTS 212: Studio Art Seminar in the South Pacific: Mixed-Media Drawing (not offered 2025-26)
- ARTS 275: Studio Art Seminar in the South Pacific: The Physical and Cultural Environment (not offered 2025-26)
- ECON 240: Microeconomics of Development
- ECON 269: Economics of Climate Change (not offered 2025-26)
- ECON 273: Water and Western Economic Development (not offered 2025-26)
- ECON 284: Power, Electricity, Environment, and Policy (not offered 2025-26)
- ENGL 236: American Nature Writing (not offered 2025-26)
- ENGL 247: The American West
- ENGL 248: Visions of California
- ENGL 288: California Program: The Literature of California (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 180: Community Engagement and Qualitative Methods
- ENTS 210: Environmental Justice
- ENTS 215: Environmental Ethics (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 220: Sovereignty and Sustainability
- ENTS 244: Biodiversity Conservation and Development (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 248: Environmental Memoir (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 249: Troubled Waters (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 250: The Socioecological Life of Corn in Oaxaca, Mexico–Food, Forests & Resilience
- ENTS 251: The Socioecological Life of Corn in Oaxaca, Mexico–Field Study in Sustainability in Oaxaca
- ENTS 275: The Arts and Environmental Justice (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 284: Power, Electricity, Environment, and Policy (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 307: Wilderness Field Studies: Grand Canyon (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 318: Trees, Forests, and Climate Justice (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 323: Mother Earth: Women, Development and the Environment (not offered 2025-26)
- HIST 306: American Wilderness (not offered 2025-26)
- HIST 307: Arctic Environmental History
- HIST 308: American Cities and Nature (not offered 2025-26)
- LTAM 220: Eating the Americas: 5,000 Years of Food (not offered 2025-26)
- MUSC 210: Music, Environmentalism, and Sustainability (not offered 2025-26)
- POSC 268: Global Environmental Politics and Policy (not offered 2025-26)
- POSC 274: Covid-19 and Globalization (not offered 2025-26)
- POSC 333: Global Social Changes and Sustainability (not offered 2025-26)
- POSC 335: Navigating Environmental Complexity–Challenges to Democratic Governance and Political Communication (not offered 2025-26)
- POSC 379: Political Economy and Ecology of S.E. Asia: Diversity of Social Ecological Systems in Southeast Asia (not offered 2025-26)
- RELG 224: Religion, Science, and the Moral Imagination
- RELG 239: Religion & American Landscape (not offered 2025-26)
- RELG 243: Native American Religions and Law
- SOAN 203: Anthropology of Good Intentions (not offered 2025-26)
- SOAN 233: Anthropology of Food
- SOAN 306: Food Sovereignty: On Socio-Ecological Futures (not offered 2025-26)
- SOAN 320: The Anthropology of the End of the World
- SOAN 323: Mother Earth: Women, Development and the Environment (not offered 2025-26)
- SPAN 264: Experiencing Spain: Ecological Systems and Environmental Challenges (not offered 2025-26)
Environmental Science Courses – (12 credits)
- BIOL 224: Landscape Ecology (not offered 2025-26)
- BIOL 225: Landscape Ecology Laboratory (not offered 2025-26)
- BIOL 248: Behavioral Ecology
- BIOL 262: Ecological Physiology (not offered 2025-26)
- BIOL 321: Ecosystem Ecology (not offered 2025-26)
- BIOL 350: Evolution
- BIOL 352: Population Ecology
- BIOL 363: Seminar: Ecomechanics (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 115: Introductory Methods for Climate Action (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 225: Carbon and Climate
- ENTS 230: Remote Sensing of the Environment & Lab
- ENTS 254: Topics in Landscape Ecology (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 288: Abrupt Climate Change (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 289: Climate Change and Human Health (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 305: Sustainable Water Management (not offered 2025-26)
- GEOL 210: Geomorphology and Lab
- GEOL 260: Coastal Marine Ecology & Lab (not offered 2025-26)
- GEOL 340: Hydrogeology: Groundwater & Lab
- GEOL 358: Soils and Lab (not offered 2025-26)
- GEOL 370: Geochemistry of Natural Waters & Lab (not offered 2025-26)
Topical Seminar Course – Required 6 credits
All students must take one 300-level seminar that includes an individual research paper. This course may also count as an elective. Courses that fulfill this requirement are:
- BIOL 321: Ecosystem Ecology (not offered 2025-26)
- BIOL 363: Seminar: Ecomechanics (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 307: Wilderness Field Studies: Grand Canyon (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 313: Conscious Nature: Towards and Anthropology of Non-Human Beings (not offered 2025-26)
- ENTS 320: Seminar: Listening to the Land
- ENTS 323: Mother Earth: Women, Development and the Environment (not offered 2025-26)
- GEOL 340: Hydrogeology: Groundwater & Lab
- HIST 306: American Wilderness (not offered 2025-26)
- HIST 307: Arctic Environmental History
- HIST 308: American Cities and Nature (not offered 2025-26)
- POSC 333: Global Social Changes and Sustainability (not offered 2025-26)
- POSC 335: Navigating Environmental Complexity–Challenges to Democratic Governance and Political Communication (not offered 2025-26)
- SOAN 313: Conscious Nature: Towards and Anthropology of Non-Human Beings (not offered 2025-26)
- SOAN 323: Mother Earth: Women, Development and the Environment (not offered 2025-26)
Senior Seminar and Integrative Exercise – Required 12 credits
Most students will take a 6-credit senior seminar, which is normally offered fall term, and then pursue a 6-credit group-based comprehensive exercise the following term. In exceptional circumstances, students may pursue an individual comprehensive exercise.