Students who complete this minor will gain an understanding of the implications of climate change on both biophysical and social systems, developing an awareness of climate change science, mitigation, and adaptation strategies relevant to their major discipline.
Students will complete courses that inform:
- What is climate change, why is it now a serious problem, and what can we do about it?
- What are the key responses and feedbacks of earth systems to climate change?
- What are the key issues for understanding how groups of people respond to and are affected by climate change?
Alongside the required courses, students will have the flexibility to choose additional courses from 1 to 3 prefixes that align with their interests, enhancing their depth of understanding climate change.
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion, students will be able to:
- Identify why and how the climate is changing, and how scientists study these physical changes.
- Analyze biophysical responses and feedbacks to climate change, including nature’s role in mitigating climate change, and the impacts to/adaptation of ecosystems.
- Recognize and evaluate responses and feedbacks to climate change in social systems (e.g., policy and economic responses, justice and equity implications, and changes to social structures and systems).
- Analyze and evaluate knowledge for a specific dimension of climate change (e.g., forecasting, policy making, economic impacts, or env. Justice impact, natural resource planning).
- Generate applications of information for a decision-making context in a specific dimension of climate change (e.g., forecasting, policy making, economic impacts, or env. justice, natural resource planning).
Effective Fall 2025
Note: A course that appears in more than one place can only count towards the minor requirements once.
Additional coursework may be required due to prerequisites.
Students must satisfactorily complete the total credits required for the minor. Minors and interdisciplinary minors require 12 or more upper-division (300- to 400-level) credits.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Required Course: | ||
| ATS 150 | Science of Global Climate Change (GT-SC2) | 3 |
| Select one course from the following: | 2-3 | |
| Climate Change and Earth System Interactions | ||
| Earth Systems | ||
| Select one course from the following: | 3 | |
| Human Ecology | ||
| Global Climate Justice | ||
| Global Environmental Justice Movements | ||
| Select one course from the following: | 3 | |
| Sea Level Rise and a Sustainable Future | ||
| Corporate Sustainability Strategy | ||
| Analysis of Sustainable Energy Solutions | ||
| Gaining Depth in Climate Perspectives: | ||
| Select 9-10 credits outside your major subject code from the following: | 9-10 | |
| Applications in Agricultural Biology II | ||
| Integrated Pest Management | ||
| Fundamentals of Sustainability Reporting | ||
| Sustainable Animal Agriculture | ||
| Human Ecology | ||
| Primates | ||
| Introduction-Economics of Natural Resources | ||
| Environmental Economics | ||
| Introduction to Weather and Climate | ||
| Sea Level Rise and a Sustainable Future | ||
| Transforming Business for Sustainable Impact (GT-AH3) | ||
| Corporate Sustainability Strategy | ||
| Exploring Range Shifts in a Changing World | ||
| Environmental Chemistry | ||
| Global Water Challenges | ||
| Air Quality Engineering | ||
| Literature of the Earth | ||
| Economics of Environmental Sustainability (GT-SS1) | ||
| Global Change Impacts, Adaptation, Mitigation | ||
| Global Climate Justice | ||
| Global Agriculture and Environmental Change | ||
| Race, Sex, Climate Change | ||
| Indigenous Consciousness and Gender | ||
| Global Environmental Justice Movements | ||
| Disability, Race, Gender in the Environment | ||
| Indigenous Knowledges | ||
| Fire Effects and Adaptations | ||
| Low-Temperature Geochemistry | ||
| Critical Zone Science | ||
| Geodetic and Near-Surface Geophysical Methods | ||
| Systems Thinking and Sustainability | ||
| Sea Level Rise and a Sustainable Future | ||
| Analysis of Sustainable Energy Solutions | ||
| Human-Environment Geographies (GT-SS2) | ||
| Geography of Hazards | ||
| Biogeography | ||
| American Environmental History | ||
| Environmental History of Colorado | ||
| World Environmental History, 1500-Present | ||
| Environmental Plant Stress Physiology | ||
| Science and Environmental Communication | ||
| Fundamentals of Ecology (GT-SC2) | ||
| Social and Sustainable Venturing | ||
| Marketing and Societal Well-Being | ||
| Integrated Ecosystem Management | ||
| Fire Economics and Policy | ||
| Principles of Environmental Communication | ||
| Ethics of Sustainability | ||
| Environmental Ethics | ||
| Global Environmental Politics | ||
| Air, Climate, and Energy Policy Analysis | ||
| Climate-Smart Irrigation Principles | ||
| Soils and Global Change-Impacts and Solutions | ||
| Program Total Credits: | 21 | |