This major provides a solid foundation in the study of Earth and the natural sciences while incorporating background in public policy issues and the social sciences. Students learn how Planet Earth works by studying the interactions between the solid Earth, surface sediments, the world’s Oceans and Atmosphere, and the contemporary dynamic processes of the Earth’s surface. This program includes courses from all four of the college’s departments: Atmospheric Sciences, Geography, Geology & Geophysics, and Oceanography. Students focus coursework in a particular environmental theme: coastal and marine environments, water, human impact on the environment, climate change, or biosphere.