Letter: Ecology is a complex science

Robert C. Mitchell categorized global climate turbulence as 'short-term aberrations” and less than 'a blip on the infinite road of time” ('We can't control ever-changing climate,” March 22).

He rightly notes that geological time dwarfs human history and reasons that because human abilities to contend with forces more powerful than ourselves are limited, we should confine our attention to 'what is before (us).”

What is before us is a geological event paleontologists call Earth's sixth great extinction, and scientists say humans are largely responsible for the conditions, including climate change, that feed its progress. Last month saw the highest global average temperature on record. Climate scientists find the report significant not just as a record-high average, but as the highest ever departure from a steadily rising 'average” global temperature.

Like Mitchell, I am a 'layman,” not a scientist. Alarmingly, political leaders also claim this status, even while deciding environmentally consequential policy. Ecology is a complex science, especially challenging to 'elderly” laypeople like Mitchell and me, whose formal science education ended long ago. Nevertheless, even we need clear understanding of environmental science. Though schooled in the humanities, I applaud today's emphasis on STEM education, not because it supplies workers for a high-tech economy, but because scientific literacy is essential for addressing urgent environmental problems. Excusing ourselves as nonscientists is not a valid response to scientists' warnings. Despite the Senate's inaction on the Iowa Environmental Literacy Plan, young and elderly need to understand environmental science to wisely face what is before us.

Mary Trachsel

Iowa City