Hannah Waters at Culturing Science has written a lovely little post on the day-to-day benefits of having a scientific worldview:
I grew up immersed in science. Any facts that exist that I couldn't reconcile with experience, I just chalked up to the limitations of my senses or even my brain's ability to conceptualize (the latter usually reserved for when I'm dealing with astrophysics). But if you aren't well-versed in how science works and perhaps the basics, this stuff sounds completely insane!
Read more here. While I'm not quite as optimistic that the power of awesome, or science education in general, will significantly change the general political landscape on issues like global warming, I do think science education makes day-to-day life much richer, as Hannah suggests. And that alone makes it worthwhile.
BTW, I am terrible at math, so I don't see little equations everywhere. Most of the time I see little molecules. Lots of Brownian motion and diffusion and stuff. ;) I'm serious here.