<p>I am very interested in earth systems and the effects human activity has had upon them. If I wanted to study similar systems on other planets, what would be the ideal major?</p>
<p>I currently want to double major in geology and an area of biology, especially conservation biology. Would it be a wiser decision to choose geology and physics?</p>
<p>I am an undergraduate student.</p>
<p>For studying Earth systems and human impacts on environments with a double degree, I would recommend combining geology with anthropology, specifically environmental anthro, ecological anthro, or archaeology(esp. geoarchaeology). Here is one university that has an institute(graduate programs) which really focuses on integrating anthro/archaeology, geology and environmental studies to investigate changes in environments. Their anthropology department is quite focused on studying such matters, as well, and is continually moving more and more in that direction.</p>
<p>[Home</a> | Climate Change Institute](<a href=“http://climatechange.umaine.edu/]Home”>http://climatechange.umaine.edu/)</p>
<p>For studying astrobiology, your choices are pretty vast: geology and bio, astronomy/physics and bio, biochem and geo or astro/physics, chemistry and geo or astro/physics, etc. However, I am not sure you will find much ability to study the effects of human or human-like activity on other planets, but you can study geo processes on other planets through a double degree in geo and astro/physics(though you don’t even need the astro/phys major). I am not sure the opportunities are very numerous for studying astrobiology, but I wouldn’t really know.</p>
<p>I could not tell from your post if your interest in the effects of human activity was stronger than in studying other planets, but I hope this answer helped some.</p>