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NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2017/06/23

(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 

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