Dear Editor,

Considering that we are now in a time when environmental awareness is becoming increasingly necessary, I find it disappointing that environmental science is not a part of the CXC curriculum. I do understand that environmental science includes topics that are covered in other existing courses such as biology, chemistry, agricultural science, geography and physics. However, this is not enough.

Environmental science stresses the interactions of all the different aspects of the environment and so, even though one might be taking all the above-mentioned subjects, they still might not understand how the physical environment is being affected. In addition, there are aspects of environmental science that are either not mentioned at all in the various science subjects in the CXC, or they are not covered deeply enough. Atmospheric science, for example, is hardly mentioned, in a time when global climate change is a key environmental issue.

I feel that Jamaica would be heading in a better direction in dealing with even simple environmental issues, such as the burning of trash, or the pollution of our watersheds, if environmental science was taught as a subject at the CXC level. When this interaction is stressed, one will be able to realise that maybe, the soil from his agricultural science class can be contaminated by the acid from chemistry class and this affects the plant ecosystems mentioned in biology. In addition, the movement of the acid is governed by the theories talked about in physics class.

Jason Williams

Missouri, United States

jamaicanjason@hotmail.com