A US University Has A New Requirement To Graduate: Take A Climate Change Course

UC San Diego has added an innovative prerequisite to ‘prepare students for the future they really will encounter.’ The Guardian, Oct.15. 2024. 🌦
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Melani Callicott, a human biology major at the University of California, San Diego, thinks about the climate crisis all the time. She discusses it with family and friends because of the intensity of hurricanes like Milton and Helene, which have ravaged the southern US, she says. “It just seems like it’s affecting more people every day.”

That’s one reason why she is glad that UC San Diego has implemented an innovative graduation requirement for students starting this autumn: a course in climate change. Courses must cover at least 30% climate-related content and address two of four areas, including scientific foundations, human impacts, mitigation strategies and project-based learning. About 7,000 students from the class of 2028 will be affected this year.

“The most important thing is that UC San Diego wants to make sure we’re preparing students for the future that they really will encounter,” says Sarah Gille, a physical oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography who was part of the committee to create the new plan.

The requirement won’t add any time to a student’s graduation schedule – it’s designed to be integrated into existing classwork. Forty one-quarter courses meet the goal, including “The Astronomy of Climate Change”, “Gender and Climate Justice”, “Indigenous Approaches to Climate Change” and “Environmentalism in Arts and Media”. Many of the classes that fall under the climate requirement overlap with courses that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, the school says.

Gille says students are positive about the requirement, which aims to prepare them for future climate-related policies and career opportunities...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/15/california-university-ucsd-climate-change-course-requirement