The Rising Popularity of Environmental Studies

After discussing how green chemistry has evolved over the years during our last class session, I decided to further this information by sharing this article on how environmental studies is becoming a very popular field of interest for college students. Colleges across the U.S. are seeing a big increase in the number of students enrolled in environmental studies and environmental science programs. For example, Boston College had 17 students minor in environmental studies in 2003, but this year that number reached to 44 students. Iowa state also saw a significant increase. They went from 99 students enrolled in environmental programs in 2003 to 150 students this year. The University of Virginia saw in increase not only in the number of students majoring in environmental studies, but also in the number of students enrolled in environmental classes that are offered to non-majors only. One outlier was mentioned, which was the University of Pennsylvania. The number of students enrolled in their environmental studies classes peaked at 44 in 2002 but has dropped to 32. However, they do mention that the number of people obtaining master's degrees in environmental policy hit a 10 year high last year. Seeing how people and students are becoming more aware of environmental issues and willing to commit themselves in helping solve these problems gives hope for the establishment of a sustainable ecosystem in our future.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/environmental-studies-enrollments-soar/