In addressing public concerns about environmental issues, including air and water pollution, nuclear waste disposal, the ozone hole, invasive plants and animals, biodiversity, and global climate change, the scientific community has realized how interrelated the components of the Earth's systems are. While the critical parts – processes in the biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and lithosphere – are studied in detail within the boundaries of traditional disciplines, how the parts combine and interact is the key to understanding how our planet works, its past history, and its likely future. The idea of "Earth System Science" has emerged, not as a loosely anchored "interdisciplinary" subject, but as the driving concept for major international scientific and policy efforts such as the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , The U.S. Global Change Research Program , and NASA's Earth Science Enterprise . Scientists also now recognize that economic and public policies, initiated either by individuals or their governments, have environmental consequences; and that, conversely, environmental parameters inescapably bound economic and political policies.

In response to this developing interdisciplinary approach to understanding and managing the Earth, a program in Earth System Science and Policy has been created. This program seeks to become a leader in a new integration of natural and social sciences, either to solve problems associated with changes in earth systems or to seize opportunities created by them. The program is unique in the Northern Great Plains. The ESSP emphasizes a thematic, interdisciplinary approach in every aspect of student learning. Other interdisciplinary programs require students to take courses from a variety of disciplines. In contrast to our ESSP program, that approach leaves the integration of discipline-specific knowledge into a coherent whole entirely to the student. The thematic approach central to our program is necessary because we are not content to identify, quantify, and document environmental ills; rather, we want to eliminate or at least mitigate them.

Students having backgrounds in natural, physical, and social sciences or humanities, as well as in applied sciences, engineering, law, education and many other fields will generally be well qualified for graduate work in ESSP.

The method of education assigns to students a significant responsibility for shaping and guiding their learning environments. Grasping the process of creating useful information will be emphasized more than learning a body of facts. Furthermore, since the point of the learning will be evident from the particular challenge or opportunity being addressed, its value will be appreciated. People learn best when the material is relevant to their lives; we anticipate high student motivation to learn in this setting.