Science Literacy

[Fred Stoss <fstoss@acsu.buffalo.edu>]

Peter Schlesinger wrote:

"In our region, there is a lot of emphasis on kids and education, merging of math and science. EPA could do a lot of public outreach by partnering with scientific organizations and supporting their efforts to inform our communities through offering knowledge to our kids about their local environment and its threats."

ALSO substitute "adults" for "kids." I been to too many public hearings where elected officials, community leaders, health and environmental advocates, parents, and concerned citizens are, for the lack of a better concept, "scientifically and technically illiterate" when it comes to an understanding of the BASIC science of the environment. People need to have an understanding of what is a higher concentration: ppm or ppb; a solution more acidic at a pH of 5 than a pH of 6. 

When people do not have the personal ability to understand the basics they have two options: act in ignorance or rely on someone else to tell them what the difference is. This leads to the concern about who is best representing or abusing the science and providing another division in the public's use of environmental information to those that know, those that don't know, those that think they know (because some "authority" has told them), and those that don't care to know.

Does the EPA have a good, scientifically-based primer on the basic concepts of environmental science?

Fred Stoss