Environmental Policy Concentration

In this course the campus and greater community serve as a living laboratory for identifying, evaluating and assessing indicators of progress toward greater ecological, economic and social sustainability. Working in groups with community partners, students apply human-centered design thinking to improve the sustainability of campus or community operations, systems, and practices through applied projects. Students will provide critical capacity to support project sites in initiating or furthering sustainability efforts by partners.

Communication tools can allow us to understand the complex dimensions of a given environmental problem, and to form an effective and ethical response to that problem. In this seminar, students will explore regional and global environmental challenges in the context of natural and human history, political and economic systems, and human and media communication framing. Students will select a specific, current topic in environmental policy to investigate, and formulate a strategic plan in response to the chosen problem.

Environmental law is one of the most dynamic and exciting areas of law, and it plays a pivotal role in protecting the personal health and welfare of all people, guiding economic development and business life, and shielding our most precious natural treasures and resources from misuse or harm. Students examine a representative selection of federal statutes and regulations including, but not limited to the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and Clean Water and Air Acts.

This course will critique environmental policies of the United States of America, the United Nations and one other nation. The goals of these policies will be identified. The success of these policies, in terms of the goals they have set for themselves will be evaluated. Students will develop and present alternatives for improving or replacing existing policies.

Climate change is real and influenced by human activity, and it will require a concerted international, national and local effort to avoid or mitigate significant alterations to planetary life and supporting systems. Students wille xamine the causes, both current and future impacts and options designed to address this issue. They will examine the enormous complexity of global law and policy that bear on current energy policy and future choices.