In honor of National Groundwater Awareness Week, here’s a funny story that a reader named Simon in New York submitted:

In our area we have a lot of people who move up here from more urbanized areas in and near NY City and who are used to living with public water supply and wastewater systems. Cooperative Extension got a phone call from one of these folks saying that their water was not working. When told that it might be a problem with the water level going down in their private well, the caller asked ‘So who do I call to fill it up?’

After you have your chuckle at this person’s expense, let’s ponder what social research tells us about the effect that geography has on environmental literacy and attitudes. It won’t surprise you to learn that city mice are less knowledgeable about nature than country mice, but it might shock you how much:

There’s two other things you need to know about city people. First, most of us fit that definition more or less. According the U.S. Census Bureau, only 20% of us live in rural areas. Second, city people are noticiably more supportive of nature protection and pollution control organizations, initiatives, investments, laws, regulations, policies, and so on, than rural people.

What What What? Lower knowledge but more supportive attitudes? That seems counterintuitive, but it’s true. My hunch is that people with lower knowledge feel less empowered themselves, and thus a heightened sense of urgency that “somebody does something.”

Hat tip to Simon for the story and to Water Wired for making me …um … aware of National Groundwater Awareness week.