The environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s caused an increase in special interest magazines on the market and in environmental education programs in the schools. These magazines communicated science and environmental information, which often could not be found anywhere else, to an increasingly sophisticated audience. However, the field of environmental education has not matured because of communication problems and the established knowledge about the communication process has not been used by the environmental educators. Using diffusion theory and the axiomatic theory of cognition and writing, science communication can be analyzed. For example, science writing offers lengthy explanations that provide too much information for the reader to absorb. Also, science writers often do not sufficiently explain new ideas, thus the audience cannot construct new cognitive structures or restructure old ones. Similarly, the complex nature of the ideas being presented in science writing requires clear and concise writing. The mass media are invaluable to the process of communicating environmental concerns, while science journalists are particularly important, for they must accurately and comprehensively inform the public of events. (SRT)