Climate Change Minor

Climate change is arguably the most pressing concern of our times. The impacts of climate change touch nearly every aspect of nature and society. Climate change is producing increasingly frequent and intense disturbances to natural resources and the environment, including droughts, flooding, wildfire, cyclones and heat waves. These impacts disrupt nearly every human endeavor, including public health and safety, environmental management and conservation, transportation, settlement patterns, food production, economics, migration, water resources and conflict. The climate change minor will help prepare students for this monumental challenge of global citizenship, and to prepare them for nearly all major fields of employment.

The minor offers a broad and integrated perspective on the intersections of society, nature, and our changing climate systems. Students will learn about the environmental science driving climate change through three foundational courses. Students will also learn about the impacts and vulnerabilities of the scientific and human dimensions of climate change, and methods for researching and presenting findings on climate.

Requirements 

In addition to the program requirements listed below, students must:

• take at least nine hours of their minor "core" requirements at UNC–Chapel Hill
• earn a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.000 in the minor core requirements. Some programs may require higher standards for minor or specific courses.

For more information, please consult the degree requirements section of the catalog.

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Core Requirements
ENVR 275	Global Climate Change: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (spring semester)	1
One course from the following list:		3
GEOG 110	The Blue Planet: An Introduction to Earth's Environmental Systems H
GEOG 111	Weather and Climate
ENEC 101	Global Environmental Change
Climate Science and Methods (select two courses from the following list):		6
EMES 203	Data Analysis for Earth, Marine, and Environmental Sciences
EMES 432	Paleoclimatology
EMES 434	Blue Carbon and Coastal Environments
ENEC 530	Principles of Climate Modeling
GEOG 212	Environmental Conservation and Global Change
GEOG 410	Modeling of Environmental Systems
GEOG 412	Synoptic Meteorology
GEOG 414	Climate Change
GEOG 416	Applied Climatology: The Impacts of Climate and Weather on Environmental and Social Systems
GEOG 477	Introduction to Remote Sensing of the Environment
PHYS/EMES 108	Climate and Energy Transitions: Understanding the Forecasts
Human Impacts or Additional Climate Perspectives (select two courses from the following list):		6
ANTH 312	From the Equator to the Poles: Case Studies in Global Environmental Change
ENEC/POLI 254	International Environmental Politics
ENEC 330	Principles of Sustainability
ENEC 373	Confronting Climate Change in the Anthropocene
ENEC 510	Policy Analysis of Global Climate Change
ENVR 575	Global Climate Change: Science, Impacts, Solutions
GEOG 232	Agriculture, Food, and Society
GEOG 436	Governance, Institutions, and Global Environmental Change
GEOG/ENEC 437	Social Vulnerability to Climate Change
GLBL 413	Socialist and Decolonial Ecologies
HIST 204	Global Environmental Histories: People, Climate, and Landscapes
PLAN 655	Planning for Natural Hazards and Climate Risk
PLAN 656	Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation
PLCY 373	Confronting Climate Change in the Anthropocene
Total Hours		16

See the program page here for special opportunities.

Department Programs

Major

• Geography Major, B.A.

Minor

• Climate Change Minor
• Environmental Justice Minor
• Geography Minor
• Geographic Information Sciences Minor

Graduate Programs

• M.A. in Geography
• Ph.D. in Geography