Interdisciplinary approaches are needed to sustainably resolve environmental problems. Our visionary faculty and passionate students make this possible at Cornell.

We explore the past, consider the present and plan the future.

We contrast modern and ancient cities, as in this distant view of St. Louis from Monks Mound, central structure of the largest city of the Mississippian culture that prevailed across the eastern U.S. for centuries, prior to European colonization.

We span boundaries between humans and sensitive environments.

We work to understand the capacity for humans to share the earth with the vast diversity of all living things. This sign at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Complex in coastal California alerts beachgoers to nesting California least terns and Western snowy plovers.

We get our feet wet.

We aim to experience all kinds of environments in all kinds of weather. We are ready to look at what thrives, whether the weather is hot, cold, wet or dry.

We go where decisions are made.

Each year our students meet and work with decision-makers in New York City, Washington D.C., Bonn and throughout the world. Here we meet with Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley.

We explore food security across the globe. 

Food sold in this Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia outdoor market reflects the multiple contrasts of food availability throughout the world.

We examine how cultural practices develop.

This advertisement in Beijing, China was part of a campaign to stop the illegal trade of ivory.

We evaluate restored habitats. 

We examine altered biophysical processes in disturbed landscapes, such as this clear-cut forest in coastal Oregon, along with the economic impact of boom-and-bust natural resource extraction on nearby communities.

We compare inequities associated with environmental degradation.

This sewer outfall in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol highlights the issue of environmental justice and communities that disproportionately experience environmental degradation.

We engage the arts to understand people and their environments.

We use literature, art, music and forms of human expression that impact knowledge and action to reflect upon divergent visions grounded in human imagination, narration, reflection, and persuasion. “Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa” (copyright The Estate of Johnny Warangkula, courtesy of The Aboriginal Artist's Agency) was created by Australian aboriginal artist Johnny Warangkula. This and many other works by Warangkula focused on Kalipinypa, a location where water – a scarce resource in the central Australian desert – gathers after infrequent storms.

Distant view of St. Louis from Monks Mound
Warning sign on beach dune that reads "Do Not Enter"
Students seining river
A group of students in a conference room with Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley.
A woman stands in front of a container of fish at a Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia outdoor market.
Man crosses his arms in an "X" pattern in an advertisement in Beijing against the illegal trade of ivory.
A small hillside covered in harvested timber and protected tree plantings
Warning sign near sewer overflow area in Washington DC
Art by Johnny Warangkula

Environment & Sustainability news

A mosquito up close.

News

Insect-based food: sustainable, nutritious – but not religious

Eating flours, burgers and fitness bars made from crickets, mealworms or black soldier fly larvae could help feed a growing global population sustainably, but it might hit resistance from those who follow halal or kosher regulations.

  • Food Science
  • Health + Nutrition
  • Environment
A grape vine budding.

News

A new Cornell-developed computer model that estimates the temperatures that cause freeze damage in a dozen grape cultivars can help growers plan for the season when damage does occur.

  • School of Integrative Plant Science
  • Horticulture Section
  • Environment
Young clear American eels on a felt-like brown surface.

News

The Hudson River Eel Project – which has netted, counted and released roughly 2 million juvenile eels since its inception in 2008 – owes its success to a cadre of nearly 1,000 high school, college and adult citizen scientists donating time and...

  • New York State Water Resources Institute
  • Environment
A woman wearing purple gloves and holding a blue folder crouches in a field and speaks to another woman in a mask.

News

Awarded graduate students will study sustainability, biodiversity, accelerating energy transitions, advancing human health, increasing food security or addressing climate change.

  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Cornell Atkinson
  • Biodiversity
agricultural fields

News

The findings The study identifies stark discrepancies in food production data worldwide, notably within livestock, fisheries, and aquaculture sectors. These sectors experience pronounced data gaps, especially at national and local levels, due to...
  • Cornell Atkinson
  • Department of Global Development
  • Agriculture