OKLAHOMA/TEXAS EVOLUTION ROAD TRIP: OPEN TO ALL.
Thursday May 30 thru Sunday June 2, 2013
Time is running short to register for the Oklahoma Evolution Road Trip! It is May 30 through June 2 and costs $350 which includes travel, accommodations, and most meals. (The cost is $400 if you prefer single accommodations.) This is a real bargain; a recent Big Bend ecotour of similar length cost almost $3000. Home base is the University of Oklahoma Biological Station on beautiful Lake Texoma. We will see fossil deposits, dinosaur footprints, and living trees, and visit creationist museums. There will be plenty of time for discussion. Dr. Stanley Rice and Dr. Gordon Eggleton, both of Southeastern Oklahoma State University, will lead the trip. The tentative deadline is May 3, though we may extend this upon request. Pre-college teachers will receive professional development credit. More information, and registration information, is available at http://www.ou.edu/uobs/evolution.html as well as at Dr. Rice’s blog (http://www.honest-ab.blogspot.com) and website (http://www.stanleyrice.com). If necessary you may attend for just part of the trip, although registration costs remain the same. We’ve talked about evolution; now let’s go see some stunning evidence for it!
TEACHERS’ WORKSHOP ON SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND VARIABILITY, 20-22 SEPTEMBER.
The teachers’ workshop for high school science teachers from Oklahoma and northern Texas will be held at the University of Oklahoma Biological Station on Lake Texoma, 20-22 September, sponsored by Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education, Oklahoma Climatological Survey and the OU Biological Station. Tentative topics include: evidence for human-caused changes in climate, how temperature may be affected, how precipitation may change, inquiry in the classroom, tree ring data, resources for teachers, climate change and human prehistory, biological effects of climate change, teaching climate change in Oklahoma and Texas (state standards and curriculum), lesson plans for the classroom.
Instructors include faculty from OU and OSU, experienced science teachers and curriculum supervisors and, especially, staff from the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. Full scholarships for room, board, books and other costs will be provided for 30 high school teachers accepted. PLAN NOW TO APPLY. DETAILS FOR APPLICATION WILL BE POSTED ON THE OESE WEB SITE (http://www.oklascience.org) SHORTLY.
STATUS OF OKLAHOMA LEGISLATIVE BILLS.
As previously reported the anti-science bills are dormant. Unless an attempt is made with a floor amendment to insert the content into another bill, HB 1674 (Rep, Blackwell, ‘Science Education and Academic Freedom Act’) and SB 758 (Sen., Brecheen, ‘Oklahoma Science Education Act’) are dead for this year. However, they could be revived with the same bill number next session. Like previous attempts these bills are not authored by scientists and there is no evidence that qualified scientists had any input into the texts of the bills; they are based on templates provided by the creationist Discovery Institute and similar to bills attempted in other states.
The demise of these bills this year can be attributed to the large number of messages sent to the appropriate committees by national and state organizations and the individuals who responded to requests to help. To all who did, THANK YOU – your efforts paid off as usual!
USEFUL OKLAHOMA WEATHER/CLIMATE SITE AND NEWSLETTER.
For up to date information on Oklahoma weather and climate information, the website provided by the Oklahoma Climatological Survey mesonet is recommended ( http://www.mesonet.org ). Also for subscription for daily email reports send to ticker (at) mesonet.org (replace ;’at’ with @ symbol)..
ANTI-SCIENCE LEGISLATION IN OTHER STATES.
So far this year nine bills have been filed in seven states on evolution education, climate change education or both. These bills have failed in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Montana and Oklahoma. Bills in Missouri have not yet been decided. In Kansas there is a bill that explicitly targeted climate change without mentioning evolution. In addition, there is a Texas bill pending that would protect proponents of ‘intelligent design’ in institutions of higher education. In the past 13 years Oklahoma has more anti-science creationist bills (23) than any other state! Thanks to the many science supporting individual activists and organizations Oklahoma remains free of these damaging attempts to damage science education.
NEW GALLUP POLL ON CLIMATE CHANGE. {From NCSE, 9 April 2013]
“U.S. worry about global warming is heading back up after several years of expanded public skepticism,” according (PDF) to a new poll from Gallup. Also heading back up are the rate of understanding that most scientists accept global warming and the rate of accepting that increases in the global temperature over the last century are mostly due to human activity. But those who think that global warming’s effects will affect them in their lifetime are still in a minority.
Asked “Just your impression, which of the one following statements do you think is most accurate?” 62% of respondents preferred “most scientists believe that global warming is occurring,” 28% preferred “most scientists believe that global warming is NOT occurring,” and 6% preferred “most scientists are unsure about whether global warming is occurring or not.” Gallup described the 62% figure as representing “a nearly full return to pre-2010 attitudes.”
Asked “And from what you have heard or read, do you believe increases in the Earth’s temperature over the last century are due more to the effects of pollution from human activities or natural changes in the environment that are not due to human activities?” 57% of respondents chose the human activities response and 39% chose the natural changes response. The 57% figure is up from 50% in 2010, but lower than the all-time high of 61% in 2007.
Asked “Do you think that global warming will pose a serious threat to you or your way of life in your lifetime?” 34% of respondents said yes, 64% of respondents said no, and 1% expressed no opinion. But 54% of respondents to a separate question about when global warming’s effects will begin thought that they have already begun to happen, with 3% thinking that they will begin within a few years and 9% thinking that they will begin within their lifetime.
Finally, asked “Which comes closer to your view — it is possible to take specific actions that will slow down the effects of global warming or the effects of global warming are part of a natural process that can’t be altered?” 56% of respondents thought that specific actions to slow down the effects are possible, 40% thought not, and 5% expressed no opinion. The new poll was the first in which Gallup asked the question, so no longitudinal comparison is possible.
Asked “Next, thinking about the issue of global warming, how well do you feel you understand this issue?” 27% of respondents preferred “very well,” 52% preferred “fairly well,” 18% preferred “not very well,” and 3% preferred “not at all.” The 27% figure is comparable to results from previous polls from 2010 on; Gallup used a different question (including a reference to the greenhouse effect) previously and received a lower rate of “very well” answers.
Overall, Gallup summarizes, “trends throughout the past decade — and some stretching back to 1989 — have shown generally consistent majority support for the idea that global warming is real, that human activities cause it, and that news reports on it are correct, if not underestimated.” Despite a fall in support in the last few years, Gallup adds, now “attitudes are returning to previous levels, putting them near the long-term averages.” [….]
For a Pew poll on climate change views see HERE.