Environmental Studies is an interdisciplinary program that focuses on the study of the relationship between humans and the environment. Managing the environment requires the specialized tools and knowledge of the social and natural sciences, the ability to understand and express ideas and values, and the dissemination of these ideas through business, education, nursing and other professions.
The social sciences provide perspectives on the environment from a human point of view, balancing the ecological perspectives contributed by the natural sciences with the economic and political aspects of human society.
The courses in the humanities bring the insights of religion and ethics as well as a body of literature and artistic appreciation that connect the natural world to human sensibility.
Many biologists, chemists, and geoscientists study the ways humans interact with the natural ecosystems, trying to find answers to complex, inter-related problems of resources, population and pollution in an effort to care for the world we live in.