What are some barriers to the development of ecological literacy?

1. People who are ecological literacy “must buck the pressures towards narrowness and also endure a great deal of professional rejection and hostility”

2. “over simplification” in a “laboratory” education or examination of ideas: organisms or topics are talked about in isolation instead of their relation to systems “To see things in their wholeness is poltically threatening.

3. lack of aesthetic appreciation: the belief that ugliness is normal (Rene Dubos), “fundamental disharmony between people and their environment”, “sign of disease”

Orr, D. (2006). 12 Ecological Literacy in Pretty, J. Environment Volume 1. Key Issues for the 21st Century. SAGE: Thousand Oaks. pp. 175-183.