NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2016/07/08
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2016-07-08 16:39.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, New survey results on American knowledge of and attitudes toward climate change.
CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE AMERICAN MIND: MARCH 2016 Seven in ten Americans think that global warming is happening, and slightly over 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: March 2016. 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, 70% of respondents said yes, 11% 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, 34% said that it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment, 7% 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 11% 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 71%. 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 March 18 to March 31, 2016, using an on-line research panel of 1204 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: March 2016 (PDF), visit: http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Climate-Change-American-Mind-March-2016-FINAL.pdf And for NCSE's collection of polls and surveys on climate change, visit: https://ncse.com/library-resource/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: * Josh Rosenau describing a creationist's misadventures in fundamentalist academia: http://ncse.com/blog/2016/06/dembski-scandal-evangelical-mind-0018286 * Stephanie Keep discussing new details in a classic evolutionary example: http://ncse.com/blog/2016/06/new-details-emerge-classic-evolutionary-tale-part-i-0018287 http://ncse.com/blog/2016/06/new-details-emerge-classic-evolutionary-tale-part-2-0018294 * Glenn Branch exposing a creationist misuse of a quotation from Leslie Orgel: http://ncse.com/blog/2016/07/misrepresenting-orgel-0017100 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. 1904 Franklin Street, Suite 600 Oakland CA 94612-2922 510-601-7203 fax 510-788-7971 branch@ncse.com http://ncse.com Check out NCSE's 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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