For some students, the environment means more than just a hike in the woods. With the Environmental Science, Environmental Thought and Practice and Global Environments and Sustainability programs, students at the University are able to explore, discover and tackle environmental issues within their classes. Despite looking at the subject through different lenses, students in all three of these programs stress that now, more than ever, it is important to be learning about our environment.
The College of Arts & Sciences offers three majors centered on the environment — Environmental Thought and Practice, Environmental Science and Global Environments and Sustainability. Ranging from full-on science classes to coursework that is highly interdisciplinary, these programs have different ways of talking about the issues the environment faces today.
An interest in the science behind environmental issues is what drew second-year College student Marty Dwyer to their major — Environmental Science. Focused on ecology, geosciences, hydrology and atmospheric sciences, the B.A. and B.S. in Environmental Science are grounded in scientific research. For Dwyer, the ability to be outside and partake in labs is a highlight of the program.
“For all the Environmental Science labs, you have actual outside components,” Dwyer said. “For my ecology lab a couple weeks ago, we went outside and dug for worms and measured worms, and that was super sick.”
The other environment-related majors at the University, however, are rooted in the humanities. One of these is Global Environments and Sustainability, a track within the interdisciplinary Global Studies department. It requires an application during a student’s spring semester of their first or second year. The program explores sustainability concepts, challenges and strategies, with core classes focused on the intersection of the environment and policy, economics and culture.
KC Christman, Global Environments and Sustainability major and fourth-Year Commerce student, said that when they first arrived at the University, they knew they wanted to study the environment but were unsure what program would be the right fit. In the end, out of the large spectrum of environmental academic programs, Global Sustainability offered the interdisciplinary approach that Christman was looking for.
“When I got here, I thought I was going to do Environmental Thought and Practice, I didn't know that Global Sustainability existed. I knew that I didn't want to do Environmental Science because it's a little too sciencey for me,” Christman said. “I don't want to be a scientist, and so I found Global Sustainability in my first semester.”
Christman said that the flexible structure of the program also offered an advantage.
“A lot of [Global Sustainability] classes overlap really heavily with ETP, so I kind of just decided to take some classes that would count for both, and see if there was one that drew me more after that,” said Christman. “I ultimately landed on Global Sustainability, because I just liked the way the classes were laid out more. I just thought it offered a lot more flexibility than even ETP.”
Like Global Environments and Sustainability, the Environmental Thought and Practice major is also interdisciplinary. The goal of the department is to prepare its students with the challenges of the environment, such as an ever growing world population and rising temperatures.
Second-year College student Kattalin Bennett found the ETP program after thinking about switching out of biology due to burnout during her first year. Her advisor at the time, Prof. Manuel Lerdau of the environmental science department, recommended ETP as a possible new major.
“He said it was better because the professors were more involved with the students in the major,” Bennett said.
For Bennett, like Christman with Global Sustainability, the academic freedom in the ETP program has been a highlight of her college experience. The major only has two required classes — ETP 2030, “Politics, Science and Values” and ETP 4010, “Environmental Decisions. The remaining required courses may be chosen from over 60 classes, spanning from biology to music. According to the ETP program website, this variety is to ensure students take classes that cover territory in history, policy and natural science.
With the College offering over 50 majors, many students within environment and sustainability majors decide to double major or minor. Dwyer, for one, has found great benefits having an environmental science perspective in their English major classes, using their knowledge base from ETP to write environmental fiction. Dwyer said they have also found courses in their economics minor program that allow them to explore the field of sustainability economics.
“There's a sustainability economics course here at U.Va., and I really can't wait to take that class,” Dwyer said. “I'm interested in the intersection of how [we] make sustainable things sustainable.”
Bennett, who majors in foreign affairs alongside ETP, has an intersectional focus in environmental justice. She finds that her experience in the ETP program has brought her a new perspective in her more political classes, such as the HILA 3021, “History of Human Rights in Latin America.” Bennett said in this class, for example, she brought an environmental perspective to an analysis of the murders of environmental advocates in Columbia.
“I took this [assignment] as an opportunity to look up environmental justice issues, which was not something that I had really learned about until I started doing ETP,” Bennett said. “It's nice to be able to take something that I've learned in my other classes and apply it.”
Throughout all of these major programs, there is one common thread — climate change. 2024 was the warmest year on record, and the presidential administration has taken steps to stifle climate-related progress, such as pulling out of the Paris Agreement and increasing fossil fuel production. Bennett, Christman and Dwyer all echoed a feeling of frustration with the lack of climate action being taken within the United States.
“[Climate change] isn't being taken seriously… we're entering the sixth mass extinction that is almost entirely caused by people,” Dwyer said. “These are facts. My concern is that these facts aren't being acknowledged or addressed by both our administration and administrations around the globe.”
Bennett echoed Dwyer’s sentiment. As someone interested in global environmental policy, she said she is worried about how politicians are downplaying the severity of climate change.
“My biggest concern is the effect that political polarization is playing on climate change and how people are not acknowledging its existence,” Bennett said. “If they are acknowledging it, they are downplaying its effects and or our human involvement in it.”
For the students in the Environmental Thought and Practice, Environmental Science and Global Environments and Sustainability programs, the threats of climate change are too serious to ignore. From the lecture hall to the lab bench, these students are confronting the issue head on, hoping to make a difference beyond the classroom.
“At the end of the day, not to be cheesy… but there is no Planet B.” Dwyer said. “This is our one chance, and we have to understand it in order to get it right.”
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