NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2014/04/11
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2014-04-11 19:49.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, Harris issues a new poll including results on global climate change. The South Carolina House of Representatives rejects a bill with a reference to the Sixth Day of Creation. NCSE is pleased to offer a preview of Michael L. Bender's Paleoclimate. The South Carolina Senate votes to incorporate a reference to the Sixth Day of Creation in a bill designating the official state fossil. And the second of Oklahoma's two antiscience bills for 2014 dies in committee.
CLIMATE IN A NEW HARRIS POLL A new Harris poll finds that nearly half of Americans believe that global climate change is occurring and that human activity is responsible for it. Asked "Which of these best describes your feelings toward global climate change?" 45% of respondents selected "I believe it exists and humans are the main cause," 30% selected "I believe it exists but that its causes are mainly not related to humans," and 13% selected "I do not believe it exists"; 12% were unsure. Acceptance of the first answer, "I believe [global climate change] exists and humans are the main cause," was more prevalent among the young (50% of respondents 18-36, 47% of respondents 37-48, 43% of respondents 49-67, and 37% of respondents 68+) and among Democrats (65% of Democrats, but only 45% of independents and 22% of Republicans), but equally prevalent among men and women (45% and 46%, respectively). The poll was conducted on-line within the United States between March 12 and March 17, 2014, among 2,234 adults (aged 18 and over). According to Harris, "Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. ... Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in our panel, no estimate of theoretical sample error can be calculated." For the Harris poll, visit: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/mid/1508/articleId/1412/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/Default.aspx And for NCSE's collection of polls and surveys on climate, visit: http://ncse.com/polls/polls-climate-change UPDATE ON SOUTH CAROLINA'S MAMMOTH DEBATE The South Carolina House of Representatives rejected the Senate's version of House Bill 4482 -- which refers to the Sixth Day of Creation -- on a 72-30 vote on April 9, 2014. As NCSE previously reported, HB 4482 was intended to designate the Columbian mammoth as the official state fossil and passed the House on a 94-3 vote in February 3, 2014. In the Senate, however, Kevin L. Bryant (R-District 3) sought to amend the bill also to designate Genesis 1:24-25, which describes the sixth day of creation, as the official state passage from an ancient historical text. But his amendment was ruled out of order, as introducing "new and independent matter." Bryant subsequently sought to amend the bill to add "as created on the Sixth Day with the other beasts of the field" after each instance of "mammoth." He was successful; the Senate passed the amended bill on a 35-0 vote on April 2, 2014. With the rejection of the amended bill, HB 4482 will presumably proceed to a conference committee. For information about South Carolina's House Bill 4482, visit: http://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=4482&session=120 And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in South Carolina, visit: http://ncse.com/news/south-carolina A PREVIEW OF PALEOCLIMATE NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview of Michael L. Bender's Paleoclimate (Princeton University Press, 2013). The preview consists of chapter 12, "Anthropogenic Global Warming in the Context of Paleoscience," in which Bender writes, "The problem of anthropogenic global change, then, is not necessary that we are heading for a less habitable planet. The problem is that both natural ecosystems and civilizations are aligned to the historic pattern of climate and water resources." Praising Paleoclimate, Daniel Shrag writes, "The history of Earth's climate is an essential context for understanding anthropogenic climate change in the future. Michael Bender pulls together this vast area of science and distills it to the essentials, delivering a comprehensive view of the evolution of Earth's climate at a level useful to scientists and the general reader." Michael L. Bender is professor of geosciences and atmospheric/ocean sciences at Princeton University. For the preview of Paleoclimate (PDF), visit http://ncse.com/book-excerpt For information about the book from its publisher, visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10043.html A MAMMOTH DEBATE IN SOUTH CAROLINA Was the mammoth "created on the Sixth Day with the other beasts of the field"? According to the Senate version of House Bill 4482 in South Carolina, it was. HB 4482, as introduced in the House on January 14, 2014, designated the woolly mammoth as the official state fossil of South Carolina. According to The State (April 2, 2014), the proposal was due to eight-year-old paleontology enthusiast Olivia McConnell, in part because "its teeth were one of the first vertebra[t]e fossils found in North America, dug up by slaves on a South Carolina plantation in 1725." Amended to specify that the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) would be the official state fossil, HB 4482 passed the House on a 94-3 vote on February 19, 2014, and proceeded to the Senate. The Senate Committee on Judiciary tinkered slightly with the language of the bill, but reported it favorably to the Senate. When the bill reached the Senate floor in late March 2014, however, controversy ensued. On March 25, 2014, while HB 4482 was under discussion, Kevin L. Bryant (R-District 3) sought to amend the bill to designate Genesis 1:24-25, which describes the sixth day of creation, as the official state passage from an ancient historical text. His amendment was ruled out of order as introducing "new and independent matter." NPR (April 2, 2014) reported that Bryant explained on his website, "I attempted to recognize the creator." Regrouping, Bryant sought to amend the bill to add "as created on the Sixth Day with the other beasts of the field" after each instance of "mammoth." He told the Greenville News (April 1, 2014), "Since we're dealing with the fossil of the woolly mammoth then this amendment would deal with the beginning of the woolly mammoth." He also suggested that the bill would survive constitutional scrutiny "because it doesn't point to a single religion." The bill with Bryant's amendment, along with a further amendment establishing "a moratorium on the enactment of legislation establishing official state symbols and emblems," proposed by a senator who told The State, "It's past time for the state of South Carolina to recognize we have enough state official whatevers," was passed by the Senate on a 35-0 vote on April 2, 2014. The bill now returns to the House, which, as The State reports, "could approve the Senate's changes or reject them, sending the idea to a House-Senate conference committee." For information about South Carolina's House Bill 4482, visit: http://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=4482&session=120 For the articles in The State, NPR, and the Greenville News, visit: http://www.thestate.com/2014/04/02/3364508/mammoth-state-fossil-bill-revived.html http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/04/02/298344506/a-state-fossil-for-s-carolina-faces-mammoth-obstacle http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2014304010158 And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in South Carolina, visit: http://ncse.com/news/south-carolina TWO DOWN IN OKLAHOMA Oklahoma's House Bill 1674, which would, if enacted, have deprived administrators of the ability to prevent teachers from miseducating students about "scientific controversies," died in the Senate Education Committee on April 3, 2014, when a deadline for House bills to be passed by their Senate committees expired. HB 1674 previously passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on a 70-6 vote on March 3, 2014. As introduced in February 2013, HB 1674 specifically mentioned "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning" as subjects which "some teachers may be unsure" about how to teach. Later, in February 2014, Gus Blackwell (R-District 61), a sponsor of HB 1674 along with Sally Kern (R-District 81), Arthur Hulbert (R-District 14), and Josh Brecheen in the Senate (R-District 61), amended the bill to omit the specific details. According to KFOR television in Oklahoma City (March 27, 2014), "Blackwell says the bill's current language doesn't mandate teaching creationism in the classroom, but instead gives teachers the right to talk about scientific evidence that challenges Darwinian evolution." Bob Melton of the Oklahoma Science Teachers Association retorted, "There is no doubt, or discussion, or controversy about evolution or climate change." HB 1674 was not the only antiscience bill active in the Oklahoma legislature in 2014: a similar bill, Senate Bill 1765, died in the Senate Education Committee in February 2014, after the National Association of Biology Teachers and the American Institute of Biological Sciences expressed their opposition to the bill. Leading the resistance to both bills, as usual, was the grassroots organization Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education. For Oklahoma's House Bill 1674 as engrossed and as introduced (both PDF), visit: http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2013-14%20ENGR/hB/HB1674%20ENGR.PDF http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2013-14%20INT/hB/HB1674%20INT.PDF For the story from KFOR, visit: http://kfor.com/2014/03/27/new-bill-gives-oklahoma-science-teachers-the-freedom-to-question-their-textbooks/ For Oklahoma's Senate Bill 1765 as introduced (PDF), visit: http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2013-14%20INT/SB/SB1765%20INT.PDF For the website of Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education, visit: http://www.oklascience.org/ And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Oklahoma, visit: http://ncse.com/news/oklahoma WHAT'S NEW FROM THE SCIENCE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Have you been visiting NCSE's blog, The Science League of America, recently? If not, then you've missed: * Josh Rosenau discussing the fourth episode of Cosmos and young-earth creationism: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/04/cosmos-wars-episode-iv-no-new-hope-creationists-0015506 * Josh Rosenau discussing the fifth episode of Cosmos and young-earth creationism: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/04/cosmos-wars-episode-v-creationists-strike-out-0015514 * Eugenie C. Scott wondering what young-earth creationists make of fungi: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/04/fungi-flood-0015511 * Ronald L. Numbers's guest post on World War I and the creationism-evolution controversy: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/04/what-if-world-war-i-creationism-evolution-controversy-part-1-0015501 * Taner Edis's guest post on World War I and the creationism-evolution controversy: http://ncse.com/blog/2014/04/what-if-world-war-i-creationism-evolution-controversy-part-2-0015500 And much more besides! For The Science League of America, visit: http://ncse.com/blog Thanks for reading. And don't forget to visit NCSE's website -- http://ncse.com -- where you can always find the latest news on evolution and climate education and threats to them. -- Sincerely, Glenn Branch Deputy Director National Center for Science Education, Inc. 420 40th Street, Suite 2 Oakland, CA 94609-2509 510-601-7203 x305 fax: 510-601-7204 800-290-6006 branch@ncse.com http://ncse.com Check out NCSE's new blog, Science League of America: http://ncse.com/blog Read Reports of the NCSE on-line: http://reports.ncse.com Subscribe to NCSE's free weekly e-newsletter: http://groups.google.com/group/ncse-news NCSE is on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/evolution.ncse http://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd http://twitter.com/ncse NCSE's work is supported by its members. Join today! http://ncse.com/join
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