Jason Dykes has co-authored a piece on the role of visualization in developing policy from scientific findings with Owen Gaffney of the Future Earth Media Lab, Greg McInerny of the University of Warwick, Denise Young of the International Council For Science and Marian Dörk of Potsdam University of Applied Sciences.
The article presents arguments for increasing communication between scientists policy makers and designers and supporting mechanisms both for achieving this and developing visual literacy. It contains links to some interesting visualization examples.
The ideas came out of Greg's excellent multi-disciplinary EcoViz working group on science, technology and design.