A rapidly changing climate, including drying streams and unpredictable weather, has created challenges for environmental studies classes and students at the University of Kansas.
Lisa Castle, an associate research senior and lecturer at KU, has taught the field ecology course for two years. She said she has had to adjust the class because of climate changes, including now only taking students to the Wakarusa River below the Clinton Lake dam to conduct stream work.
“It’s the one place we know there is water, whereas the smaller streams that are more interesting and have better ecology to study, by October, have no water,” Castle said.
State drought monitoring reports show that significant portions of Kansas, including northeastern counties, remained in a moderate to severe drought in 2025, with reservoirs and stream flows below long-term averages. These conditions contribute to the dry creeks that Castle’s students have had to adapt to.
In the fall, Castle and her students completed a dry-stream lab to conduct research even without water. However, Castle said the class could not use the tools they would use in a typical stream environment.
“It would be preferable if they could use the same tools in multiple places. So, that’s a change,” Castle said.
She said this will not dramatically affect students since the program is structured to allow for these developments and accommodations. However, Castle said these environmental changes have become more extreme as the years have gone on.
For example, one of Castle’s summer classes got rained out on a section of land they planned to study. Castle said extreme weather events have happened in the past but are now occurring more frequently and “lead to more difficulties in planning field experiences.”
Rainfall intensity in the Wichita Area increased by about 38% since 1970. Climate change is linked to more extreme weather events, including heavier rainfall extremes and increased flood risks.
Graphic from Climate Central
Climate data from Climate Central shows that rainfall in Kansas has become more intense yet less consistent. According to the data, Wichita’s annual rainfall intensity increased by about 38% over the past 50 years, while Topeka’s intensity increased by about 10%.
Robert Hagen, a lecturer at KU who taught the field ecology course before Castle, said climate change is difficult to combat because it is a slow process.
He said the slow pace of climate change leads to a phenomenon called the Shifting Baseline Syndrome, where each generation accepts the environment as it is because they do not know or remember the environment as it used to be. This can cause a disconnect in people’s approach to handling climate change.
Hagen said he has seen people’s perception of nature transform from something unaffected by human action to realizing it is interconnected.
“We’ve reached a stage in our civilization where our actions have consequences,” Hagen said.
About 59% of Americans believe global warming is caused by human activities, according to a 2024 survey from Yale. Over 72% believe global warming is happening, though.
According to a 2025 poll from the University of Chicago, 67% of Democrats and 35% of Republicans believe in human-driven climate change. Overall, it found that 52% of Americans in all political parties believe in human-driven climate change.
Hagen said he thinks it is important for environmental studies students to be proactive. He said that courses like the field course are crucial because getting out and experiencing these effects directly generates knowledge that can’t be learned in a typical classroom environment.
He said the skills these students develop will be paramount as irregular climate anomalies and debates over them become increasingly frequent.
“I think there’s a determination to want to do something and a recognition that it starts with all of us,” Hagen said. “On one side, you can say it’s all hopeless, and on the other, you can say ‘Gee, there’s a lot of opportunity here. We’ve got so much work to do.’”
Climate change has affected the field of environmental studies, but Castle said she sees opportunities in these changes.
“Rather than climate change diminishing their education, it’s making their education more vital,” Castle said.
Elliot Akerstrom is a senior from Topeka, Kansas, studying journalism and environmental studies.
Harry Whited is a recent graduate from Anchorage, Alaska, who studied journalism and English.