Understanding the climate system is crucial to navigating this century’s challenges with climate change. In this major you will study the interactions between Earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, and learn how these interactions drive climate.
You will learn about the physical causes of climate change and its consequences; the composition of the atmosphere and its inputs from oceanic, biological, and geological sources; how past climates help us predict future climate changes; the political and economic impacts of climate change locally, nationally, and globally. And you will analyze climate model predictions and their uncertainties, gain a better understanding of policy and economics, and what citizens can do to minimize and mitigate climate change.