Climate Data Analyst Casey Olson, left, of Utah State University, conducts a tour during a visit to the Utah Climate Center's climate reference station on April 1, 2024, in Logan, Utah. Increasingly, U.S. universities are creating climate change programs to meet demand from students who want to apply their firsthand experience to what they do after high school. . Ash and smoke forced her family to stay inside their home in the Bay Area city of Fremont, for weeks.
“Lots of centers and departments have renamed themselves or been created around these climate issues, in part because they think it will attract students and faculty,” said Kathy Jacobs, director of the University of Arizona Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions. It launched a decade ago and connects several climate programs at the school in Tucson.Inflation Reduction Act
Students also cover disaster response and ways communities can prepare and adapt before climate change worsens. The offerings require biology, chemistry, physics, and social sciences faculty, among others. When higher ed institutions put their programs together, they often draw on existing meteorology and atmospheric sciences studies. Some house climate under sustainability or environmental science departments. But climate tracks need to go beyond those to satisfy some incoming students.