ENVS - Environmental Science Major (B.A.)

Environmental science is an interdisciplinary major concerned with understanding the complex interactions between processes that shape our natural environment and human influences upon them. It draws upon the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, earth science, computer science, and engineering, and has bearings on areas such as public policy, medicine, economics, and law. This integration of several sciences fosters the exchange of information and ideas on the scientific problems and issues of the environment that range from local to regional to global. These issues have an impact on economic growth, food production, human health, and the overall quality of life for all living things. Solutions require practitioners trained to comprehend both the broad functioning of the biosphere and the way in which humans, especially through economics and public policy, both respond to and effect challenges and threats to the biosphere.

Trinity College’s location in the capital of Connecticut offers a wide range of opportunities for the study of a complex urban environment and direct contact with city, state, and federal regulatory agencies. Although many people equate environmental science with the natural world, most humans live in metropolitan areas. These areas have a tremendous impact on the environment: energy, water, food, housing, and transportation. A diversity of aquatic and terrestrial habitats at several local and regional sites, including Trinity-owned acreage in eastern Connecticut, also provides students with ideal field locations for comparative rural and urban environmental studies.