UNC's Green Communicators

It's not easy to write about the environment. Passion for the subject matter can sometimes get in the way of even the best prose. So it's interesting to see a group of students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill cutting their teeth on both the environment and communication by writing a green blog.

Environmental Blogging is co-authored by students taking Environmental Advocacy, a course taught by a doctoral candidate interested in rhetoric, public culture, environmental communication, and critical-cultural theory. The class itself looks at ways of using oral and written communication to influence others and what it calls "dilemmas of redress" of environmental problems. The course is also offered in a service-learning version in the spring. That allows students to do more than 30 hours of service with an environmentally-oriented group in the surrounding community and participate in advocacy field trips across the state.

UNC runs much of its environmental programs through its Institute For The Environment, which brings together the university's many departments to do interdisciplinary research and education. It offers both a bachelor of arts in environmental studies and a bachelor of science in environmental science. In addition, there is a bachelor of science option through its School of Public Health, which also offers four related master's degrees and a doctorate in environmental sciences and engineering.