Climate Change Minor

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering

Program Website

Program Description

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and dozens of courses at Cornell explore the many facets of a warming world—from impacts on farming and food, to the causes of climate change, from the potential of sustainable energy to replace fossil fuels, to the slow response of governments worldwide. The climate change minor gives students the opportunity to explore climate change from varied disciplinary perspectives while gaining a firm grounding in the basic physical, ecological, and social science as well as its interactions with history, philosophy and the arts. Based in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the minor is available to all Cornell undergraduates.

The minor is offered collaboratively with classes across campus coordinated by Peter Hess (BEE/CALS), Christy Goodale (EEB/A+S), Natalie Mahowald (EAS/ENG),  and Karen Pinkus (COML/A+S). This coordinating committee can add or subtract courses from this list, based on proposals by professors or students. The minor is administered by the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

During your final semester (or earlier if you have already completed your minor requirements), you should submit a completed climate change minor certification form to Annmarie Card in 2102A Snee Hall for approval. We have an email list with special events for climate change minors, so please email us to put your name on the list. Please contact Annmarie Card with any questions about the minor certification process and to obtain the climate change minor certification form.

Contacts:
Curricular topics: Natalie Mahowald (nmm63@cornell.edu)   
Administration: Annmarie Card (
ac2666@cornell.edu)