With registration for Spring/Summer courses opening later this week, Brock students are invited to consider the many opportunities available for studying the environment, sustainability and the human impacts of climate change.

“There isn’t a student at Brock who couldn’t benefit from building their understanding of the pressing environmental issues facing our society today,” says Lynn Dempsey, Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies in the Faculty of Social Sciences. “The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which are being discussed across Canada this month, remind us that there are many avenues into this topic, and all of them are important.”

Two first-year Spring classes in the Department of Geography and Tourism Studies highlight the need for broad understanding of how human actions affect and are affected by climate change as well as what mitigations and policy changes can support positive change.

In GEOG 1P03 — Vulnerability, Human Communities and Environment, students explore risk and disasters, while GEOG 1P12 — Our Changing Environment: Human Impacts will focus on specific environmental problems such as biodiversity loss and the depletion of natural resources.

The Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC) will offer two second-year undergraduate courses from the Minor in Sustainability.

In Spring, ENSU 2P01 — Introduction to Environmental Sustainability will tackle key concepts of sustainability. In Summer, ENSU 2P02 — Environmental Sustainability in Practice will dive into topics such as sustainable agriculture and corporate responsibility. Students who complete both courses with a minimum 60 per cent average are also awarded a Micro-certificate in Environmental Sustainability.

Upper year students can examine the issue of pollution — from how it is perceived by different stakeholders to the role of legislation to topics of international co-operation — in POLI 3P66 — Environmental Policy, Law and Administration, offered in Spring by the Department of Political Science.

Students can also view sustainability and timely issues related to technology through lenses of gender and equity in Gender, Environment and Technology, cross-listed by the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies and the Department of Sociology as WGST/SOCI 3P92 in Spring.

For more information or to register for Brock’s Spring/Summer courses, visit brocku.ca/springsummer

To learn about other offerings from the Faculty of Social Sciences, visit Spring/Summer Courses in Social Sciences.