Environmental Studies
2126 Humanities and Social Sciences Building
Muir College
(858) 534-3589
http://muir.ucsd.edu/minors/index.html
All courses, faculty listings, and curricular and degree requirements described herein are subject to change or deletion without notice. Updates may be found on the Academic Senate website: http://senate.ucsd.edu/catalog-copy/approved-updates/.
Minor in Environmental Studies
The Environmental Studies minor offers students from every major a basic grounding in the scientific, technical, social, and cultural issues presented by the interaction of human beings with their environment and the need to build a more environmentally sustainable future.
The two required courses, ENVR 30 and ENVR 110, have no prerequisites. Some of the other courses related to the minor, particularly those in Group A, have significant prerequisites; students planning an Environmental Studies minor should check catalog course descriptions carefully. Some credit toward the minor may be gained through independent study, field research, study abroad, the Academic Internship Program, and others. Students must petition such academic experiences towards their Environmental Studies minor requirements. Petitions for petitionable courses, transfer courses, and individual additions to the courses listed below must be approved by the chair of the Environmental Studies Steering Committee. For updates, individual advising, and quarterly lists, please contact envrstudies@ucsd.edu.
Applicable and Petitionable Courses
Environmentally-based courses offered by UC San Diego departments fall into two categories: applicable and petitionable. Applicable courses are those that have been approved as always applying to the ENVR minor. Petitionable courses are either new, and therefore not yet approved as applicable, or are “topics” courses that focus on environmental matters only in particular quarters. Petitionable courses may be approved by petition to the minor during the quarters in which they appear in the ENVR quarterly lists.
Quarterly Lists
Each quarter, when the upcoming quarter’s Schedule of Classes is published, the Environmental Studies quarterly list is available in H&SS 2126 and on the website. The quarterly list is an important, comprehensive source of information about ENVR course offerings as well as those from departments throughout the campus. It identifies applicable as well as petitionable courses for a given quarter. For reference, the office and the website maintain archives of quarterly lists.
The minor is structured as follows:
Required:
- Environmental Studies 30, usually offered in the fall quarter.
- Environmental Studies 110, usually offered in the winter quarter (need not be taken consecutively).
Required:
- Five additional courses, at least four in the upper division, from the following two groups. At least one course must be taken from Group A and two from Group B.
Group A—Natural Sciences
BILD 3. Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
BIEB 121. General Ecology Laboratory
BIEB 131. Marine Invertebrate Ecology Laboratory
BIEB 140. Biodiversity
BIEB 165. Behavioral Ecology Laboratory
BIEB 166. Animal Behavior and Communication
BIEB 176. Conservation and the Human Predicament (cross-listed with ANBI 132)
Chemistry 15. Chemistry of the Universe
Chemistry 149A. Environmental Chemistry
Chemistry 149B. Environmental Chemistry
Chemistry 173. Atmospheric Chemistry
Environmental Studies 102. Selected Topics in Environmental Studies (when taught from a natural sciences perspective)
Environmental Systems 101. The Living Earth
Environmental Systems 103. The Human Earth
Environmental Systems 120. Science and Environmental Writing
MAE 118A. Energy: Nonnuclear Energy Technologies
Physics 12. Energy and the Environment
Science, Technology, Public Affairs 35. Society and the Sea
SIO 10. The Earth
SIO 12. History of Earth and Evolution
SIO 15. Natural Disasters
SIO 16. Geology of National Parks
SIO 20. The Atmosphere
SIO 30. The Oceans
SIO 35. Water
SIO 110. Introduction to GIS and GPS for Scientists
SIO 132. Introduction to Marine Biology
SIO 134. Introduction to Biological Oceanography
Group B—Social Sciences/Humanities
ANAR 108. Archaeology of the UC San Diego Campus
ANAR 182. Origins of Agriculture and Sedentism
ANBI 132. Conservation and the Human Predicament (cross-listed with BIEB 176)
ANSC 160. Nature, Culture and Environmentalism Communication
Communication 171. Environmental Communication
Economics 131. Economics of the Environment
Economics 132. Energy Economics
Economics 145. Economics of Ocean Resources
Environmental Studies 102. Selected Topics in Environmental Studies (when taught from a humanities/social sciences perspective)
Environmental Studies 140. Wilderness and Human Values
Ethnic Studies 103. Environmental Racism
History 154. Western Environmental History
IRPS GN 458. International Environmental Policy and Politics
IRPS GN 459. Conflict Resolution of Environmental Issues
Philosophy 148. Philosophy and the Environment
Philosophy 164. Technology and Human Values
Political Science 104E. Environmental Law and Policy
Political Science 125A. Communities and the Environment
Political Science 162. Environmental Policy
Sociology 149. Sociology of the Environment
Urban Studies and Planning 2. Urban World System
Urban Studies and Planning 124. Land Use Planning
Urban Studies and Planning 144. Environmental and Preventive Health Issues
Urban Studies and Planning 171. Sustainable Development