Reading the higher moderated stuff, like 3+ on here, I don't see any people discussing the actual problem posed, which I repost below.
"How can we understand science, if we can't understand the language of science? 'We don't learn science by doing science, we learn science by reading and memorizing. The same way we learn history.'"
The larger problem is that there is a large dearth of explainable science in the world and a larger vacuum of people able to explain how these sciences work to the layman. That's what's important.
I'm somewhat educated having a bachelors and being in law school. I read a large range of material from scientific studies (if I can do it for free) to magazines, to text books, and occasionally have to learn the basics of something to be able to argue about the law on it since I plan on doing intellectual property law. According to census data, education and reading habit wise, I'm above normal. I mean, I figured out enough tags to make my paragraphs and add italics. You might not think that's great if you're reading Slashdot, but that's advanced coding to a lot of people using the Internet these days. But....
I know that there will never be increased funding for science unless there is some kind of popular understanding that can create a demand for it.
Ready for the car analogy? People will soon want affordable electric cars because gas, even in Texas, is getting closer and closer to $4 a gallon. But people understand the concept of batteries, transmissions, etc. Or, if they don't know how a gear box works, they at least know it's necessary to drive a car. These are things that impact them and are relevant, and are also things they can understand to a certain degree. If people can't understand it, they (in my anecdotal and statistically worthless experience) become curious (minority), apathetic (majority) or scared of it (many, but not majority).
If you tell the average person that Climatology is complex, and that they'll only understand it with 10 years of research even if they read the studies where this data is supposedly being presented, then people will not try to find out the details. Instead, they want easily handled chunks of information, which is why this specific issue is so politicized now. People don't have time, resources, and - most importantly - the desire to wade into the weeds and figure out what's going on.
It also doesn't help that there is a very real disdain for the plebes who don't have doctorates or who don't just trust the scientists' every word because they're scientists, damn you! That's possibly an exaggeration, but you can look at the comments for yourself. A good majority of the comments above in this slashdot article are nothing but very literate trolls, trotting out pithy statements about how Science is good, religion is Bad, and stupid people need to stop being stupid. No one is ever going to change their mind by being insulted.
Instead, people need to work, train, donate, and hope for a future where we have professionals that can explain their science in such a way that it becomes accessible. Discover and National Geographic usually do a good job of that, but are restrained by the commercial interests of needing to be interesting. If anything, scientists need to add advertising and marketing to their skills, or hire people who have those skills to drum up more resources for explaining and making science relevant to most people. It is impossible for someone to care how many great discoveries and modern luxuries came out of the space ship project if the person doesn't know that's how it came to be. People on Slashdot know this, but the average person, and especially the average high schooler, have no idea. (I substituted for a public school district for a year. There's history and science classes, but they don't ever talk about science and history in the same sentence.)
Make Science popular, then people will know enough to not have to accept the statements of Experts on faith. Make the science common sense.
