NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2015/08/21
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2015-08-21 14:41.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, Latino views on climate change in a new poll, and a proposal to extend summer vacation in Kentucky to benefit the "ark park."
POLLING LATINOS ON CLIMATE CHANGE A new poll of Latinos in the United States finds that a large majority -- more than four fifths -- accept that climate change is real, and that a majority -- almost two thirds -- accept that climate change is mostly due to human activity. Asked "Do you think global warming and climate change are mostly caused by human activities; caused mostly by natural changes in the environment; other; or none of the above because global warming and climate change isn't [sic] happening," 66% of respondents preferred the first answer, 31% preferred the second answer, 3% preferred the third answer, and 6% preferred the fourth answer, with 3% saying that they didn't know. In a memorandum about the poll, Latino Decisions -- which conducted the poll for Earthjustice and GreenLatinos -- commented, "Latinos, more than other Americans, see climate change as a consequence of human activity. Almost two-thirds (66%) accept anthropogenic explanations of global warming. Comparing our results to other national surveys of the broader population, the differences are around 14 percentage points." The memorandum explains, "The survey, fielded between June 24 and July 8, [2015,] is based on a national sample of 1,200 Latino registered voters who were interviewed by landline, cell and on-line in English and Spanish. The survey has a nominal margin-of-error of +/- 2.8%." For the memorandum (PDF), visit: http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/National%20Release%20Polling%20Memo%20Formatted.pdf And for NCSE's collection of polls and surveys on climate, visit: http://ncse.com/polls/polls-climate-change EXTENDING SUMMER VACATION FOR THE SAKE OF CREATIONISM? Will Kentucky extend the duration of summer vacation in order to enable students to attend a creationist attraction? Two state senators plan to file a bill that would "prevent schools from starting earlier than the first Monday closest to Aug. 26," according to the Grant County News (August 12, 2015), in the hope of boosting tourist spending. Damon Thayer (R-District 17), the prospective sponsor of the bill along with Chris Girdler (R-District 15), told the newspaper, "Grant County is set to become a major tourist destination due to the presence of the Ark." Thayer was referring to Ark Encounter, a Noah's-ark-themed attraction under construction by the young-earth creationist ministry Answers in Genesis, which also operates a "museum" in Kentucky. In 2011, the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority voted to grant tax incentives -- in the form of retained sales taxes -- to the Ark Encounter project, but that decision was reversed in 2014, as NCSE previously reported. Answers in Genesis and its allies are currently suing the state in federal court over the reversal: the case is Ark Encounter, LLC et al v. Stewart et al. Educators in Kentucky have reportedly been cool to the idea of the state requiring local schools to start later in the year, citing both the ideal of local control of education and the danger of impairing student learning. Chris Brady, a member of the Jefferson County School Board, told Insider Louisville (August 14, 2015), "Tourism is important to the state, but it's not as important as education. And these decisions are made with the kids' best education interest in mind. I'm sensitive to the fact that we want to boost our tourism, but not at the expense of our kids' education." Simon Brown of Americans United for Separation of Church and State commented on the organization's blog (August 18, 2015), "It is long past time for Kentucky's lawmakers to stop assisting the Ark Park in every way possible because it is a First Amendment issue when government props up a project with a clear religious mission. And if Ham's attraction will be as popular as he claims, he won't need any help from taxpayers. But if politicians like Thayer and Girdler insist on keeping the Ark Park afloat, they will find themselves embroiled in more controversy." For the story in the Grant County News, visit: http://www.grantky.com/content/thayer-schools-need-later-start-date For the story in Insider Louisville, visit: http://insiderlouisville.com/metro/education-community/education-leaders-push-back-proposal-mandate-later-start-date-kentucky-public-schools/ For Simon Brown's blog post, visit: https://blog.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/scheduling-snafu-ky-lawmakers-want-to-extend-summer-vacation-so-kids-can And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Kentucky, visit: http://ncse.com/news/kentucky 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 returning to the complex history of science and race: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/08/science-race-their-complex-history-0016581 * Glenn Branch discussing the 1922 creationist opus God -- or Gorilla: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/08/real-mccann-0016555 * Stephanie Keep commenting on misreporting on the origin of octopuses: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/08/octopus-s-garden-space-0016605 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 x303 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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