The Yale Tell Leilan excavation project, in northeastern Syria. Recent research suggests intensifying agriculture and abrupt climate change led to societal collapse in the third millennium BC. |
Environmental Studies is excited to present several new and revised courses this year.
- Microeconomics with Environmental Applications
- Introduction to Environmental History
- Atmosphere, Ocean, and Environmental Change
- Ecology and Conservation
- Laboratory for Ecology and Conservation
- Environmental Anthropology
The central intellectual challenge of this major is to bring the knowledge and diverse perspectives of the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences to bear on the environmental issues that we face. The core courses encourage you to attain the breadth, the skills of critical thinking, and familiarity with methods of analysis and to address this challenge. They also provide the basis for more advanced courses, selecting an area of concentration, and undertaking research. Core courses may be used to satisfy Yale College distribution requirements.
Majors are required to take at least two core courses from Group A (humanities and social sciences) and two from Group B (environmental sciences with associated labs). Ordinarily students will take at least one core from each group before admission to the major at the end of the sophomore year. Students may also use core courses as electives in the major during the third and fourth year.
The faculty designed the following core courses especially for this major. EVST numbers in the 100s indicate courses appropriate for freshman and in the 200s for students with more background or experience.
Information on this website supplements the information on the program and courses provided on the official Yale College Course Information Website.
EVST Program | EVST Courses | Top
Microeconomics with
Environmental Applications
Sheila Olmstead
EVST 117a/ECON 117a
An introduction to microeconomics with an emphasis on topics relevant to the study of the environment, including externalities, regulations, public goods, and consumer-surplus analysis. May not be taken after ECON 108a or b, 110a, or 115a or b.
Introduction to Environmental History
Paul Sabin
EVST 120a/HIST 120a
Survey of interactions between people and natural environments in North America from pre-colonial times to the present, including ecological, political, cultural, and economic dimensions. Includes rise of modern conservation and environmental movements, and development of public policy.
Atmosphere, Ocean,
and Environmental Change (with 1/2 credit lab)
Ronald Smith
EVST 201a/G&G 201a
Lab: EVST 202La/G&G 141La
Physical and chemical processes that control the Earth's surface, atmosphere, ocean, and climate, and that influence human activities. Development of quantitative methods for constructing energy, water, and chemical budgets. Topics include severe storms, regional climate, the ozone layer, air pollution, ocean currents and productivity, El Niño, the history of Earth’s climate, global warming, energy and water resources. Must be taken concurrently with EVST 202La.
Ecology and Conservation
Oswald Schmitz
EVST 262a/F&ES 262a
Ecological principles and their potential application to problems in conserving biodiversity. Topics include: the biosphere; organizational hierarchies and time scales; individual behavior in an evolutionary context; ecology of species interactions; ecological complexity; and links among species and ecosystem functions. Some laboratory and field exercises. Basic ecological sampling methods.
Laboratory for Ecology and Conservation (1/2 credit lab)
Dror Hawlena
EVST 262a/F&ES 262a
A grounding in the principles of sampling and quantifying biodiversity and defining landscape-level patterns. Experiments and computer simulations clarify the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function. Emphasis on quantitative aspects of sampling, analysis and modeling, and scientific communication through report writing.
Environmental Anthropology
Carol Carpenter
EVST 345a/F&ES 384a/ANTH 382a
History of the anthropological study of the environment. The nature-culture dichotomy, ecology and social organization, methodological debates, and the politics of the environment.
Environmental Politics and Law
John Wargo
EVST 255b/F&ES 255b
Exploration of the politics, policy, and law associated with attempts to manage environmental quality and natural resources. themes of democracy, liberty, power, property, equality, causation, and risk. Case histories include air quality, water quality and quantity, pesticides and toxic substances, land use, agriculture and food, parks and protected areas, and energy.
Global Environmental History
Harvey Weiss
EVST 226b/ARCG 226b
The dynamic relationship between environmental and social forces from the Pleistocene to the present. Topics include the Pleistocene extinctions, transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture, peopling of the New World, the origins of first cities, states and civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt, the societal responses to abrupt climate changes, the adaptations and collapses of early Old and New World civilizations in the face of natural and self-generated environmental disasters, and the destruction and reconstruction of the New World by the Old.