The impact of scientific illiteracy in America

[flipdeadshot22]

I found the following stats very saddening, but at the same time enlightening, as to the intellectual makeup of the bulk of our American society:

"This level of science illiteracy may explain why over 40 percent of Americans do not believe in evolution and about 20 percent, when asked if the earth orbits the sun or vice versa, say it's the sun that does the orbiting"

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/duncan/17535/

What future impacts do you see for a society with this amount of widespread ignorance, and what can be done to fix this situation?