NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2017/06/23
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2017-06-23 14:55.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, A new survey on public opinion about climate change. And congratulations are in order for Bob Melton and for Michael E. Mann.
A NEW SURVEY ON CLIMATE CHANGE "[M]ost Americans are increasingly clear in expressing their views [on climate change], based on the Spring 2017 fielding of the National Surveys on Energy and the Environment (NSEE) from the University of Michigan and Muhlenberg College," reports the Brookings Institute (June 12, 2017). Asked "From what you've read and heard. Is there solid evidence that the average temperature on earth has been getting warmer over the past four decades?" 70% of respondents said yes, 19% said no, and 11% volunteered that they were unsure. Those who said yes were asked "How confident are you that the average temperature on earth is increasing?": 68% of respondents were very confident, 26% were fairly confident, 3% were not too confident, 1% were not confident at all, and 1% volunteered that they were unsure. Those who said yes were also asked "Is the earth getting warmer because of human activity such as burning fossil fuels, or mostly because of natural patterns in the earth’s environment?": 44% chose human activity, 17% chose natural patterns, 34% volunteered that it was a combination, and 4% volunteered that they were unsure. Those who said no were asked "How confident are you that the average temperatures on earth are not increasing?": 50% of respondents were very confident, 36% were fairly confident, 9% were not too confident, 3% were not confident at all, and 2% volunteered that they were unsure. According to the NSEE data, there were 841 adult respondents for the survey, contacted via land line and cell phones between April 17 and May 16, 2017; the margin of error was +/- 3.5%. The data were weighted by gender, age, race, income, and education. For the story from the Brookings Institute, visit: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/06/12/trumps-global-warming-views-remain-elusive-but-not-those-of-americans/ For the NSEE data, visit: http://closup.umich.edu/national-surveys-on-energy-and-environment/nsee-data-tables/nsee-2017-spring/ And for NCSE's collection of polls and surveys on climate change, visit: https://ncse.com/library-resource/polls-climate-change CONGRATULATIONS TO BOB MELTON NCSE is delighted to congratulate Bob Melton on receiving the Jack Renner Distinguished Service to Oklahoma Science Education Award from the Oklahoma Science Teachers Association. The award is presented annually to "individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to the advancement of science education in Oklahoma," according to a story in the National Association of Biology Teachers e-newsletter (June 19, 2017). A long-time member of NCSE, Melton is the STEM Facilitator and Assessment Coordinator for the Putnam City School District. He served as the president of the National Association of Biology Teachers in 2016. For the NABT newsletter, visit: http://myemail.constantcontact.com/NABT-News---Views--June-19--2017.html?soid=1126637384411&aid=ELxe5e1leq8 CONGRATULATIONS TO MICHAEL E. MANN NCSE is delighted to congratulate Michael E. Mann on receiving the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication for 2017. Presented by Climate One, a project of the Commonwealth Club of California, the award is "given to a natural or social scientist who has made extraordinary scientific contributions and communicated that knowledge to a broad public in a clear and compelling fashion." Ben Santer, a member of the award jury as well as a member of NCSE's board of directors, commented in a June 19, 2017, press release from Penn State University, "Mann has been a world leader in scientific efforts to understand the natural variability of the climate system, and to reconstruct global temperature variations over the past two millennia. This critically important work led to the famous 'hockey-stick' temperature reconstruction. The hockey stick provides compelling evidence for the emergence of a human-caused warming signal from the background noise of natural fluctuations in climate." Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center. His latest book, coauthored with Tom Toles, is The Madhouse Effect (Columbia University Press, 2016). A member of NCSE's Advisory Council, he received NCSE's Friend of the Planet Award in 2014. For Penn State's press release, visit: http://news.psu.edu/story/472084/2017/06/19/research/mann-receives-schneider-award-outstanding-climate-science And for a free excerpt (a chapter on geoengineering) from The Madhouse Effect, visit (PDF): https://ncse.com/files/pub/evolution/excerpt--mann--madness.pdf WHAT'S NEW AT NCSE'S BLOG? Have you been visiting NCSE's blog recently? If not, then you've missed: * Glenn Branch investigating a historical distortion of Darwin's thoughts about the origin of life: https://ncse.com/blog/2017/06/inconceivable-0018557 For NCSE's blog, 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: 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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