An Introduction to the Environmental Nexus and ENV 200

Stephen Pacala, the Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and former director of the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), developed a new undergraduate Environmental Studies course, ENV 200 A-F “The Environmental Nexus”, to examine a collection of global environmental crises. The course will be taught for the first time in the spring of 2017.

“When today’s undergraduates reach the peaks in their careers,” said Pacala, “four global environmental problems involving our climate, food, biodiversity, and water will also approach their peaks. The world will need to deal with the environmental nexus of climate change, biodiversity loss, and challenges to our supplies of food and fresh water.” This new course will address multiple dimensions of the issues, including scientific, political, social and ethical aspects and will be accessible to all majors and classes.

In addition to the lectures, each student will enroll in one of six (6) different sections designed to fulfill a range of distribution requirements including: science and technology with laboratory (STL); science and technology without laboratory (STN); quantitative reasoning (QR); ethical thought and moral values (EM); literature and the arts (LA); and social analysis (SA).