One trillion dollars. That’s a lot of money. It’s what the U.S. government is likely to spend to shore up (bail out) financial institutions that got into trouble through their own excesses. European governments are likely to spend a similar amount in a similar cause. It is also what we owe to China in the form of U.S. Treasury Bonds. In this emergency, both Europe and America are going to spend a great deal of money quickly, and perhaps for the wrong purposes. As one economist put it, “I don’t think we can treat the cause. I think we have to treat the symptom” (1). Unfortunately, our society is treating a lot of symptoms and failing to address the fundamental causes of problems. Can such a society be sustainable over the long term?

Sustainability is a theme in this issue. On p 1604 Iyere describes a program designed to prepare students to live, “inquiring, ethical, and productive lives”, a goal that is part of his university’s mission statement. On p 1608 Laura Pence describes sustainability education activities of the ACS Committee on Environmental Improvement. On p 1609 members of the Graduate Student Symposium Planning Committee describe how they organized a symposium focused on sustainability and interdisciplinary collaborations at the recent ACS meeting in Philadelphia. And p 1620 contains an announcement of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s student design competition for sustainability: People, Prosperity and the Planet. Clearly there are important efforts underway to promote sustainable practices and to call on the idealism and energy of young people. Will these be enough?

The League of Women Voters of the United States has identified four crucial problems that our nation has not addressed appropriately (2). The League calls on the next President of the United States to take immediate action to deal with climate change, health care, immigration, and growing inequality in wealth and incomes. Given what is being spent on the economic crisis and the large deficits the U.S. already has, it is not clear whether a new President will have much financial wherewithal to address these problems. Even if all the President has is the “bully pulpit” from which to call on the public, action is needed. As teachers we ought to contribute to addressing these problems. We who teach science should provide students with background they need to understand climate change and adequate supplies of energy resources. And better education is needed at all levels so that all of these issues can be discussed and decided more productively by everyone.

It is even more important, I think, that we encourage students and the public to take a longer view and a broader view than just what will benefit each individual tomorrow. Our society has developed incredibly rapid and effective communication resources that allow most of us to know immediately what is happening that may affect us. The rapid drop in sales of vehicles that get poor gas mileage is one example-information spread much more rapidly than the automobile manufacturers could react. Had people taken a longer, more altruistic view, however, what was a sudden change could have taken place over years, allowing for much better alignment of production with demand. It has been clear for some time that burning large quantities of fossil fuel is a major contributor to global warming and cannot be sustained, but we have collectively ignored this and made a bad situation much worse. If the price of gasoline continues to drop as it has in the past few weeks, we may go right back to driving as usual, but right now there is a great opportunity for us teachers to point out why that is not sustainable.

It is also important that we teachers emphasize ethical behavior not only in science but in everything a student might do. A broadcast in National Public Radio’s “This American Life” series in which participants in the sub-prime mortgage bubble were interviewed demonstrates that many of them knew that what they were doing was not ethical or sustainable (3). One recipient of a loan stated that neither he himself, nor anybody he knew, nor even a loan shark would have loaned him money. Both this person and whoever provided the loan must have known that what they were doing was neither ethical nor sustainable, but they did it anyway, presumably because it benefitted both at the time. The negative consequences of many such decisions have now spread to all of us.

Finally, we need to continually advocate for strong support of science and education at all levels of government. Scientific research pays tremendous dividends, but mainly in the future. Our current society overvalues the present at the expense of the future and therefore is less supportive of research than it might be. Education pays dividends even farther in the future than research by enhancing students’ skills, intellect, and ethics. One of the reasons that I am a teacher is that I hope to help students develop into “inquiring, ethical, and productive” people. I don’t expect to see how most students develop, but I can imagine that in the long term many of them will sustain my city, state, and nation, making society better for everyone. That’s an important goal that I hope all readers of this Journal can aspire to.

Literature Cited

1. Jared Bernstein, Senior Economist, Economic Policy Institute, quoted in The New York Times, September 30, 2008, p C11; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/business/30alternatives.html?_r=1&oref=slogin (accessed Oct 2008).

2. Wilson, Mary G. The National Voter October, 2008, p4; Woodwell, William H., Jr. The National Voter, October, 2008, pp 4-11.

3.Available as audio or transcript at http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242 (accessed Oct 2008). OpenTheGovernment.org : Americans for Less Secr…