Examples include polygraph and drug testing, health effects of environmental pollutants, public opinion polls, race and gender bias in jury selection, employment, and college admissions, climate change, and voter fraud. Global Environmental Problems . The primary purpose of this course is to understand and assess human influences on the global environment. Topics include human population growth and consumption, climate change, acid rain, ozone depletion, and biodiversity. A second goal is to illuminate how scientists think about environmental problems, in order to help students be more intelligent consumers of scientific information and analysis.
Students specializing in environmental policy do a policy analysis for a sponsor.
Unlike the traditional master's thesis, which can focus on topics of purely theoretical or scholarly interest, the project is intended to be thoroughly practical, in keeping with the professional nature of public-policy education. Sponsors usually work for international or federal agencies, congressional committees, or a variety of nongovernmental organizations.