When I first signed up for Physics 1C ENVS 10 – Climate Change: Science and Responses, with Professor Remi Beaulac of the Chemistry Department, I’ll admit, my motivation wasn’t entirely about a passion for science. As a political science and peace and conflict studies honors double major on the pre-law track, my academic focus doesn’t often intersect with physics or environmental science, necessarily. Instead, I enrolled to fulfill Swarthmore’s Natural Science distribution requirement, which ensures students experience the breadth of a liberal arts education. But what I thought would be a checkbox course quickly transformed into one of the most engaging and thought-provoking classes I’ve taken.
The course, taught with a perfect balance of rigor and relevance, digs into the science behind climate change and the range of responses society can take to address it. From understanding the greenhouse effect to discussing mitigation strategies like carbon capture and renewable energy policy, the material feels timely and urgent. I’ve been fascinated to see how scientific principles connect with the kind of environmental policy issues I study in my political science major. I am currently also in an honors seminar entitled Capitalism and Struggles for Climate Justice, with Professor Lee Smithey of the Peace and Conflict Studies Department, and this class adds a needed scientific perspective to the more interdisciplinary approach of my honors seminar.
One of the things that makes Physics 1C ENVS 10 stand out is how it bridges science and real-world impact. We do not have a lab component but we also are not merely learning about equations or abstract theories; we are actually exploring data and models for how energy consumption affects our planet and how we can quantify those effects. The course has also sparked in me a deeper interest in environmental law and litigation, a field I hadn’t seriously considered before. I now plan to go into a field of environmental law.
Taking this class reminds me why Swarthmore’s distribution requirements are more than just boxes to tick—they’re invitations to explore new ways of thinking. And sometimes, in those explorations, you discover intersections that enrich your academic and personal goals in ways you never expected.
