Why Environmental Studies?

All of us live in and depend on the environment to lead healthy and prosperous lives. Governments from the local to the global level, non-government organizations (NGOs) and citizens in every country in the world are increasingly concerned about environmental quality and the sustainability of our societies. Even many prominent business leaders now embrace "green" principles and practices as the standard way of doing business in our globalizing world.

Environmental education has a tremendously important role to play in guiding us towards a more sustainable future. Yet, traditional academic disciplines on their own are ill-suited to providing the educational content and breadth that are required to understand the necessarily complex and interdisciplinary environmental challenges facing us. The ES program brings together the various strands of environmental thinking that exist within different disciplines in geography, economics, philosophy, anthropology, etc. and encourages students to harvest the most relevant ideas and synthesize these in a manner that enables a comprehensive environmental literacy. From this, ES students will cultivate the kind of integrative, analytical thinking that will enable them to contribute effectively to environmental decision-making and leadership in whatever personal or professional setting they ultimately find themselves.

Graduates of ES will have a variety of career opportunities afforded by their education. Among these include work with provincial, federal and international government agencies, non-government environmental and community-based organizations, and environmental consulting companies. As well, many businesses now incorporate environmental management and planning in their operations and will hire pragmatic-thinking graduates with environmental backgrounds.

ES graduates wishing to pursue further education at the graduate and professional-school level will find their education especially well recognized by schools of planning, geography, environmental studies, forestry, business & public administration, and law.

For more information, contact Brad Walters, at bwalters@mta.ca