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Why are some people so adamant that global warming is a myth? Perhaps they were not
taught about global warming in school and hold that belief today. Maybe they do not want global
warming to exist and so they shroud themselves in a lie to make themselves feel better about the
situation. Perhaps they fear the consequences of their past actions and do not want to take blame
for things they have done in the past and so they lie to themselves and say that it is not real or
even that it is a hoax. No matter the excuse it is a real-world example of scientific illiteracy.
Scientific illiteracy is a massive problem throughout the entire world. It allows people to
derail the progress of scientific advancement either because they fear science or do not
understand it. Scientific illiteracy is the opposite of scientific literacy as the name suggests, but
what is scientific literacy? Simply put scientific literacy is the basic understanding of scientific
concepts and ideas that allow for an individual to take part in formal discussion over the topic of
science and its impact on the world (Blake, 2017). This definition seems complicated to some
but it really boils down to “Do you understand science?” which is not a hard question to answer.
This question must be asked by every individual which makes it challenge to ascertain who is
and who is not scientifically literate. The easiest way to see if someone is scientifically literate or
not is to ask basic generalizations about scientific concepts. For example, ask someone if the
Earth is flat, if they say “yes” they are scientifically illiterate, if they say “no” then you cannot be
certain if they are or are not scientifically illiterate. This is the main folly of scientific literacy, it
depends on numerous questions and answers that contribute to someone’s personal scientific
literacy. The same can be said of someone’s reading proficiency. A person is considered literate
if they can read and write but there are levels of reading proficiency. Someone is, for lack of a
better word, more literate if they can read at a college level compared to someone who can only
read at an 8th grade level. Both individuals are technically literate but one can read more
advanced texts than the other. Scientific literacy functions the same way.
Since scientific literacy is judged based on more of a scale than on black and white
scientifically literate than another, at least not by definition. But why is this important? It seems
that scientific literacy is not very important since if someone wants to believe that the Earth is
flat thean it doesn’t affect anybody but them, right? That would be true if it weren’t for voting. Commented [1]: _Rejected suggestion_
The way that almost every democracy is set up relies on the people of that republic to vote for
numerous things. The most important being the president, but constituents also vote for local
elected officials as well as state officials, not to mention the numerous house bills that the public
can vote on as well. The way that people think, feel and sometimes even where they live can all
affect voting patterns and scientific literacy is a big part of that. The data is clear as to who is
scientifically literate. As a trend those who are more exposed and more interested in science and
technology are more scientifically literate (Miller, 2016). Take an area such as Mississippi which
has the lowest scored science performance for the 8th grade according to the Nations Report Card
(Card, 2015). The state voted primarily Republican for the 2012 presidential election (Maps,
2016). Now take a state like New Hampshire who scored amongst the highest state in 8th grade
science performance (Card, 2015). New Hampshire voted primarily democrat for the 2012
election (Maps, 2016). These correlations between scientific performance and voter trends are
nothing to sneeze at. They paint the picture for how voters tend to vote based on their level of
scientific and academic performance. However, tThese trends are nothing new. however, Commented [2]: _Accepted suggestion_
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Ssociologists and political analysts have known for years, but the importance of these trends in a
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and it should be said that this is just one data sample and outliers are always something to keep
in mind while looking at statistical data. The importance of these trends is to show that scientific
literacy has a substantial role in how voters tend to vote. In a fair and equal democracy such as
how the United States strives to be, there needsing to be active and informed voters. Based on Commented [5]: _Accepted suggestion_
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personal accounts people that I know tend to vote for very simple reasons, either they have voted
Commented [7]: either suggests only two reasons
a certain way since they could vote and they stick to that party no matter what. Others vote a
certain way because their parents vote a certain way, and others still vote because of who they Commented [8]: maybe use some instead of others
because others is repetitive
think the most persuasive or suave candidate is. These are all terrible ways to pick a
representative. A voter needs to be aware of the issues that their representative will be voting for,
how they will be voting for them, and how that affects the constituent. Being scientifically
literate can be the first step to creating informed and active voters.
Science permeates everything that we as citizens do in the United States. It affects our
food, our water, our technology and how we use all of this in conjunction with our lives. It
encompasses so much of our daily lives that many people don’t even realize it. We have in our
pockets at all times a computer that is more powerful than the computers used to send people to Commented [9]: _Accepted suggestion_
the moon and we complain because it is too slow. Science is making so many innovations and
advancements that it is hard to keep up without actively having a role in these advancements or
reading about them every day. That is not a realistic expectation of the American people. It is
important nonetheless to understand the very real impacts that science makes on our society. Part
of this is knowing how science and science based political policies will affect the person voting
instead of creating arbitrary rules for voting. The United States needs to be more responsible in
this to work, people and the government must change the way they look at voting entirely. That Commented [10]: _Rejected suggestion_
is the hardest part when it comes to making a reform like this. The people of the United States
need to want to make this change. Even if I detailed a conceptually perfect plan for creating more
active and more informed voters it would never work without the cooperation of the American
people. In fact, creating active voters is a problem that the United States is already facing. Only
around 40 percent of registered voters aged 18 to 29 voted in the 2016 presidential elections.
That is a terrible sign considering in 2008 the same demographic had a voter turnout rate of
almost 50 percent (Mcdonald, 2016). Voter apathy is a hard problem to combat since making
voting legally required would infringe on a person’s right to abstain from voting. The good news
is that as the data suggests the older someone is the more likely they are to vote as indicated by
Scientific literacy is not the most pressing issue in America and I am not advocating for it
to be. There are far more important issues to take care of first, but it is a very important topic that
needs to be discussed publicly. The best way to create public exposure to any topic is to portray
it in the media. I wanted to look at how scientific literacy was portrayed in large, credible news
outlets. The first thing that I noticed when doing so was the lack of exposure that this topic
received. The news was not focusing much on scientific literacy which was the first bad sign.
The second came when I did find an article written by the BBC under the title “On the merits of
Scientific Literacy” written by Alice Bell(Bell, 2012). It looks promising until you start reading
and realize that Bell is not a scientist or anyone who knows the intricoes of scientific literacy but
is instead a journalist. Bell gives an apt description of scientific literacy and its potential effects
on the public. This is all good until you realize that no real expert opinion was given. It was more
of an opinion piece. Ordinarily this would not be so bad, but it fails to give any scientific view or Commented [11]: _Accepted suggestion_
outside opinion by an expert in the field and, is written by someone who openly claims to not Commented [12]: _Accepted suggestion_
really know what the concept is and was written six years ago. This is not a good sign. I am all
for freedom of the press and opinion pieces in general but the only credible news source that I
can find seemed to have written the article and then forgot the topic existed with no real updates
on the matter.
Voters are the most important part of the democratic system of government. Without
them officials are not elected and the whole system collapses. With a dim portrayal in the media
it is hard for scientific literacy to become a major talking point amongst voters yet it is
imperative for creating educated voters. The way that the average American voter views science
is crucial to the way that they vote, and with science becoming more and more influential over
our lives now is a better time than ever to educate people on science. Luckily the scientific
community has already been doing so with outreach programs for kids and science based
summer camps to get children excited or at least interested in science. This is not a permanent
solution however, more needs to be done to educate as many voters as possible but it is a good
start.
Although scientific literacy may seem like a small speck of things to reform in the United
States its impact on how we vote and what we vote for is crucial. It can be the tipping point for
many areas that are unaware of the scientific world and it creates more educated voters that
hopefully will vote based on how the candidate will affect them. This has been a core issue for
years but the increase in the way that science affects the average American has made it a more
pressing issue.
References:
Bell , Alice. “On the Merits of Science Literacy.” BBC News, BBC, 4 July 2012,
www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-18709587.
The Nations Report Card. “State Profile.” The Nation's Report Card, 2015,
www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?chort=2&sub=SCI&sj=&sfj=NP&st=MN&year
=2015R3.
Miller, Jon D. Civic Scientific Literacy in the United States in 2016. Institute for Social
home.isr.umich.edu/files/2016/10/NASA-CSL-in-2016-Report.pdf.
2016, www.electproject.org/home/voter-turnout/demographics.