ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION

Scores of polls and opinion surveys over the years have demonstrated, to the concern of social scientists, the general low level of public knowledge on most issues of national importance. The “environmental crisis” is a particularly difficult issue on which to educate the public because there is as yet no adequate definition of what constitutes environmental deterioration. How does one distinguish between acceptable environmental change and environmental damage? How does one evaluate the rupture of life support chains, the creation of health hazards and the aesthetic loss of clear skies and natural vistas? What standards can be established as a full generation matures which does not even know the meaning of clean air and water? The public and press receive information on environmental deterioration from essentially three sources. The scientific and academic communities provide the greater part of the data base on which decisions with environmental implications are made by government and business. Too much of their work is unintelligible to the public and available only through professional journals. A few academicians have attempted to communicate more directly with the public, ignoring the strong peer group pressure against such activity. But information from this sector reaches the public only sporadically. The other two sources-government agencies and private corporationsprovide most of the environmental information for the press and public. A free flow of information is necessary from these sources if the public is to become at all informed on threats to environmental quality and efforts at environmental repair.