NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2015/10/02
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2015-10-02 14:21.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, New survey data on the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change.
POLLING SCIENTISTS ON CLIMATE SCIENCE "Using responses from nearly 700 biophysical scientists," a new survey "finds that approximately 92 percent of them believe that human-caused climate change is really happening," according to the Washington Post (September 25, 2015), reporting on J. S. Carlton, Rebecca Perry-Hill, Matthew Huber, and Linda S. Prokopy's "The climate change consensus extends beyond climate scientists," published in Environmental Research Letters. Asked "When compared with pre-1800's levels, do you think that mean global temperatures have generally risen, fallen, or remained relatively constant?" 93.6% of respondents indicated that they thought temperatures have risen, 2.1% indicated that they thought temperatures had remained relatively constant, 0.6% indicated that they thought temperatures had fallen, and 3.7% indicated they had no opinion or did not know. When respondents who indicated that they thought that average global temperatures have risen when compared to pre-1800s levels were asked, "Do you think human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures?" 98.2% agreed. Multiplying 98.2% and 93.6%, Carlton and his colleagues concluded, "91.9% of scientists surveyed believed in anthropogenic climate change." Presented with the proposition that climate science is a credible science, 78.79% of respondents strongly agreed, 15.30% moderately agreed, 3.03% slightly agreed, 1.06% were undecided, 0.61% slightly disagreed, 0.91% moderately disagreed, and 0.30% strongly disagreed. Carlton and his colleagues observed, "The average response to 'Climate science is a credible science' was 6.67 out of 7, indicating strong agreement." The researchers concluded, "there is a general consensus among biophysical scientists across the United States that (1) climate change is occurring, (2) humans are contributing to it, and (3) climate science is a trustworthy, mature, and credible discipline. Scientists who continue to claim otherwise are operating outside of the consensus, not just of climate scientists, but also of scientists as a whole." The survey was conducted among scientists at the twelve universities in the Big 10 conference. Two thousand scientists were randomly selected; 1868 were successfully contacted by e-mail and asked to take the survey; 698 responses were received (for a 37.4% response rate). Two versions of the survey, including or excluding "cultural values" questions, were used; there was no significant differences in response rate between the two versions. For the story in the Washington Post, visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/09/25/yet-another-survey-shows-the-climate-change-debate-is-settled-among-scientists/ For "The climate change consensus extends beyond climate scientists," visit: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/094025/meta And for NCSE's collection of polls and surveys on climate, visit: http://ncse.com/polls/polls-climate-change 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: * Minda Berbeco relating the story behind the California Science Teachers Association's statement on climate change education: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/09/power-teachers-0016659 * Stephanie Keep talking to a Dallas teacher with the inside scoop on Homo naledi: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/09/discovery-homo-naledi-qa-with-teacher-who-had-inside-scoop-0016661 http://ncse.com/blog/2015/09/discovery-homo-naledi-qa-with-teacher-who-had-inside-scoop-0016662 * Emily Schoerning lamenting a well-intentioned campaign to "girlify" STEM education: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/09/girls-0016667 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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