Forget STEM, we need MESH

aka M edia literacy, E thics, S ociology and H istory.

This article is a great explainer on the obsession with getting more people into STEM (S cience, T echnology, E ngineering and M aths), and why that’s going to create an imbalanced society that knows how to do something, but not why and whether it should.

Although America-centric, the sentiment of this article feels applicable within the Australian context. Writer Tim Wise points out that, at this point, climate change is a sociological challenge, not a technological one. Scientists have done sterling work identifying the problem, modeling the outcomes, and telling us what we need to do. It hasn’t been enough.

So how would MESH help?

“We lack the media literacy to filter out the propaganda peddled by the fossil fuel industry and the politicians who do their bidding. We lack the ethical grounding to weigh our long-term obligations to future generations against the short term costs of transitioning to renewable energy and rethinking current patterns of consumption and production. We lack the sociological imagination needed to analyze the power dynamics that make polluting industries so powerful, and the historical memory that might allow us to learn from past struggles against corporate irresponsibility as we fight for a healthier future.”