Now Offering Climate Change and Society Minor for Undergraduates!

People, animals, plants, and all living organisms are being impacted by long-term changes in temperatures and ecosystems around the world. This global change is an increasingly dominant fact of life for all human and natural systems, and we can see the impacts all around us. In many parts of the world, governments and organizations have already been forced to adapt to ensure basic services that are essential for human civilization--including water, food, clean air, livable climate, renewable resources, and natural areas?will continue to be available for their communities.
 
Climate change is also creating unprecedented new opportunities for innovation and economic growth; the jobs of the future are already aligning with solving the tremendous reorganization of the global economy driven by this global change. College students today will live their entire personal and professional lives in a world that is being shaped by these rapidly-changing forces; there is no part of our world that will not be touched by global change.
 
The Minor in Climate Change and Society is designed to supplement the career interests of students in any field who want to understand how global change will affect their professional and personal lives and adapt to new emerging career opportunities. The CCS Minor curriculum ensures basic competency in three primary areas, taking advantage of UArizona?s expert faculty. First, students will have the opportunity to understand the physical and natural realities of global change, including what is driving these changes and how they are being manifested in today?s world. The component of the Minor is designed to enable students, as current and future citizens, to distinguish fact from fiction, and learn important skills in critical thinking about important global issues. Second, the Minor will examine how societies are adapting to address these challenges, both through short-term adaptation and via long-term restructuring of the global economy. The third component of the Minor is intended to be solutions-oriented; instead of instilling feelings of helplessness and fatalism, we hope to inspire students to see the enormous range of creative possibilities in technological and social change that will be key to the coming century. Students will have the flexibility within the Minor to select electives to match their curriculum to their specific academic and career interests and have the opportunity to practice what they?ve learned through internships or research. The ultimate goal of the Minor is to produce a generation of UA alumni who will be effective professionals and educated world citizens. The Minor is designed to respond to and advance multiple goals articulated in the University of Arizona Strategic Plan.
Course requirements
CCS minor flier
Contact Katelyn Loomis, katelynloomis@arizona.edu, or Amanda Flexas-Williamson, aflexas@arizona.edu, to apply for the minor.