Morning Briefing: 8 November 2010

Climate scientists plan campaign against global-warming skeptics [via The Los Angeles Times]

Some 700 members of the American Geophysical Union have agreed to form a rapid-response team to speak out about the realities of climate change, a topic with virtually universal support in scientific circles but with a growing number of skeptics in and out of politics. The move is in no small part due to Republicans’ takeover of the House Tuesday and subsequent vows to investigate the EPA and climate change researchers. “This group feels strongly that science and politics can’t be divorced and that we need to take bold measures to not only communicate science but also to aggressively engage the denialists and politicians who attack climate science and its scientists,” said Scott Mandia, professor of physical sciences at Suffolk County Community College in New York.

Pompeii ruin collapses amid claims site mismanaged [via The Daily Telegraph]

A house once used by gladiators before fights almost 2,000 years ago in Pompeii collapsed Saturday morning, realizing fears of mismanagement and creeping decrepitude of the UNESCO World Heritage site. Culture Minister Sandro Bondi said the cause appeared to be “rain water that had infiltrated the House of the Gladiators when it was restored with cement at the end of the Second World War after suffering bomb damage.” Funding for conserving Pompeii, which is visited annually by more than 2 million people, has been slashed in recent years, and archaeologists are concerned about continuing degradation if preventive measures are not enacted quickly.

The Queen joins Facebook [via The Guardian]

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II joined Facebook today, Buckingham Palace announced this weekend, but there’s no way to friend or poke her. Technically, the monarchy now has a fan page where news and photos about the Queen and the royal family will be posted. “Facebook is probably the last bastion of social media the Royal Household had not yet entered, and the Queen is keen to be fully signed up to the 21st century,” an anonymous royal aid said. “All plans for the Facebook page have been sent to the top, and the Queen has very much taken the lead on this.” A Royal Twitter account was launched in 2009.

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Half of Americans Fail Climate Change Quiz

A new study from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication gives more than half of Americans a failing grade on the specifics of climate change. When questioned about the greenhouse effect, the difference between weather and climate, fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, skeptic arguments and solutions, fully 52 percent of respondents received a failing grade. A mere one percent received an A; 7 percent, a B; 15 percent, a C; 25 percent, a D.

“These misconceptions lead some people to doubt that climate change is happening or that human activities are a major contributor, to misunderstand the causes and therefore the solutions, and to be unaware of the risks. Thus many Americans lack some of the knowledge needed for informed decision-making about this issue in a democratic society,” the report’s authors, Anthony Leiserowitz and Nicholas Smith of Yale and Jennifer R. Marlon of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, wrote.

Some of the results:

• 63 percent understand global warming is happening; 19 percent say it is not
• 13 percent have not heard of the greenhouse effect
• 83 percent know weather often changes from year to year; 74 percent knew “climate” refers to average weather conditions in a region
• 55 percent incorrectly believe Earth’s climate is warmer than ever
• Given the current surface temperature of 58 degrees, respondants were asked about the average temperature during the last ice age. The correct response is between 46 and 51 degrees; the median response was 32 degrees, the freezing point of water. Many responded 0 degrees.
• 80 percent identified coal as a fossil fuel; 76 percent identified oil as a fossil fuel; 60 percent identified natural gas as a fossil fuel; 28 percent said wood (not a fossil fuel)
• 47 percent incorrectly said fossil fuels are the fossilized remains of dinosaurs
• 49 percent incorrectly believe the space program contributes to global warming
• 42 percent said that, because weather cannot be predicted more than a few days in advance, long-term climate forecasts are unreliable
• 35 percent said that, because Earth’s climate has changed before, the current change is not related to human activity
• 18 percent believe the record snowstorms last year disprove global warming (climate change models actually predict such storms as more water from the poles melts and is dispersed in the atmosphere)
• 21 percent know most of the glaciers on Earth are melting
• 43 percent incorrectly believe that stopping rocket launches from punching holes in the ozone layer will reduce global warming
• 27 percent said climate change is extremely or very important to them personally
• 75 percent said schools should teach the causes, effects and possible solutions to children

The report’s authors caution against reading too much into the grades, however. Some questions were more difficult to answer than others, they note, and perhaps even more importantly few Americans have taken any formal course on climate change, instead getting their information from the mass media.

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