NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2015/11/27
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2015-11-27 22:12.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, A chance to support NCSE while shopping on-line! Plus kudos for Andrew J. Petto, a new if posthumous book from Robert J. Schadewald, and a new poll of American public opinion on climate change.
SUPPORT NCSE THROUGH AMAZONSMILE If you are shopping on-line on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, please consider supporting NCSE through AmazonSmile. When you make a purchase via http://smile.amazon.com/ch/11-2656357, NCSE receives 0.5% of the price (for eligible purchases). And if you're feeling especially generous, make a donation to NCSE by purchasing books and items of hardware, software, and office equipment from NCSE's Amazon.com wish list. For the AmazonSmile page for NCSE, visit: http://smile.amazon.com/ch/11-2656357 For NCSE's wish list at Amazon.com, visit: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/39U1UMFQ22WED/ CONGRATULATIONS TO ANDREW J. PETTO NCSE is pleased to congratulate Andrew J. Petto on receiving the Evolution Education Award for 2015 from the National Association of Biology Teachers, sponsored by BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study) and the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action. The award recognizes innovative classroom teaching and community education efforts to promote the accurate understanding of biological evolution. Senior Lecturer in Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and co-editor (with Laurie R. Godfrey) of Scientists Confront Creationism: Intelligent Design and Beyond (2008), Petto is the former editor of Reports of the National Center for Science Education and a former member of NCSE's board of directors. His "Evolution in the Context of Teaching Biology" appears in the print supplement to RNCSE 35:6. Eugenie C. Scott, NCSE's founding executive director, commented, "No one knows more about teaching evolution effectively than Anj Petto. And no one is more dedicated to mentoring teachers to do a better job in teaching evolution." She added, "Anj 'gets it' better than anyone I know when it comes to communicating to students, teachers, and his fellow scientists what needs to be done to improve evolution education." For information about NABT's awards, visit: http://www.nabt.org/websites/institution/index.php?p=132 THE PLANE TRUTH AT LAST! Robert J. Schadewald (1943-2000), a former president of NCSE's board of directors, was working on a manuscript about the history of the flat-earth movement until the week of his death. Now, thanks to his sister Lois Schadewald and his widow Wendy Schadewald, a final version of The Plane Truth is freely available on-line in web and ebook formats. Writing at the Skeptical Society's Insight blog (November 19, 2015), Daniel Loxton comments, "During his life, Bob Schadewald was the world's leading skeptical expert on the history of flat-Earth advocacy. ... Always there is more to learn. But we who are left to continue that work are richer today, for we have Bob Schadewald's last gift to the scholars of the weird." For The Plane Truth on-line, visit: http://www.cantab.net/users/michael.behrend/ebooks/PlaneTruth/pages/index.html And for Daniel Loxton's blog post about The Plane Truth, visit: http://www.skeptic.com/insight/noted-skeptics-posthumous-flat-earth-book/ POLLING AMERICANS ON GLOBAL WARMING AGAIN Two in three Americans think that global warming is happening, and about half think that, if it is happening, it is mostly owing to human activity, but only about one in ten know that nearly all climate scientists agree that global warming is happening as a result of human activity. Those were among the key findings of Climate Change in the American Mind: October 2015. Presented with a definition of global warming as "the idea that the world's average temperature has been increasing over the past 150 years, may be increasing more in the future, and that the world's climate may change as a result" and asked whether they thought that global warming is happening, 67% of respondents said yes, 16% said no, and 18% indicated that they didn't know. Asked about the cause of global warming, on the assumption that it is happening, 53% of respondents said that it is caused mostly by human activities, 33% said that it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment, 8% opted for "neither because global warming isn't happening," and 5% volunteered that it was a mix of human activities and natural causes. Asked to indicate "what percentage of climate scientists think that human-caused global warming is happening," only 12% selected a value between 91% and 100% -- the correct range, as repeated independent studies have demonstrated. The mean of the values selected by the respondents was 67%; the median was 74%. The study was conducted by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. The surveys were administered in a web-based environment from September 30 to October 19, 2015, using an on-line research panel of 1330 American adults. According to the report, the sample "includes a representative cross-section of American adults -- irrespective of whether they have Internet access, use only a cell phone, etc. Key demographic variables were weighted, post survey, to match US Census Bureau norms." The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3% at the 95% confidence level. For Climate Change in the American Mind: October 2015 (PDF), visit: http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/files/Climate-Change-American-Mind-October-2015.pdf 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 discussing the Letters to the Future project: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/11/dear-future-self-little-me-0016760 * Glenn Branch congratulating a promoter of "intelligent design" on finally describing Richard Dawkins's "weasel" example correctly: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/11/weaseling-it-right-at-last-0016711 * Ann Reid discussing the harassment of the National Center for Environmental Information: http://ncse.com/blog/2015/11/scientific-solidarity-0016764 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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