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Build a sustainable and just future.
Climate, Environment, and Society involves the study of Earth’s natural and human systems amidst profound global environmental change. You’ll examine how earth’s climate and environment are being transformed by socioeconomic and cultural processes, and how socioeconomic and cultural conditions are, in turn, being transformed by the changing climate and environment.
This major combines expertise from several of Clark’s areas of strength: Geography, Economics, Sustainability and Social Justice, and Biology. Search for more equitable, sustainable and just pathways for the future through a problem-focused and solution-oriented curriculum that explores the various disciplinary perspectives required to understand and address climate change and other sustainability challenges.
This program will be offered in fall 2025 as a major and a minor.
Climate, Environment, and Society
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
PLSGet hands on with Clark’s microgrid by mounting solar panels, building wind turbines, and connecting electrical systems while learning about renewable energy.
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.
PSCI 157
PLSWhy have environmental policies emerged or failed to emerge? Examine the character of policy action, public ideas, political leadership and institutional development.
Course requirements for the climate, environment, and society major are structured so you can understand how climatic, 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 six 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.
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.
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
The Clark Core allows students to take courses across diverse disciplines, helping them develop critical thinking skills and respect for other cultures and perspectives. You’ll connect classroom learning with action through world and workplace experiences.
