OKLAHOMA EVOLUTION/CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS–MARCH 2023
1. Anti-/pro- science education legislation in other states
2. Stressed plants make ultrasonic clicking noises
3. Antarctic sea ice cover at record low
4. T. rex may have had lips like a modern lizard’s
5. In a first, renewables beat coal in the US power sector in 2022
6. March videos
ANTI-/PRO- SCIENCE EDUCATION LEGISLATION IN OTHER STATES
Ohio–The treatment of climate change in Ohio’s Senate Bill 83 was the focus of a story in Energy News Network (March 23, 2023), featuring comments from NCSE’s Deputy Director Glenn Branch.The bill would, if enacted, require the state’s public institutions of higher education to remain in effect neutral about “controversial” beliefs and policies — which explicitly include climate change. Specifically, the bill would require each such institution to “[a]ffirm and guarantee that faculty and staff shall allow and encourage students to reach their own conclusions about all controversial matters”; to “[a]ffirm and guarantee that it will not endorse, oppose, comment, or take action, as an institution, on the public policy controversies of the day, or any other ideology, principle, concept, or formulation that requires commitment to any controversial belief or policy”; and to “[p]rohibit political and ideological litmus tests in all hiring, promotion, and admissions decisions, including … commitment to any controversial belief or policy.”
NCSE’s Glenn Branch suggested that the description of climate change as controversial is “going to have a chilling effect,” discouraging faculty from teaching about climate change for fear of encountering objections based on the provisions of the bill. More at NCSE here and here.
Texas–The Texas state board of education recently adopted “a series of changes to its operating rules … that could influence school decisions on book purchases,” especially with regard to the human influence on climate change.
The changes include a requirement that instructional materials “present positive aspects of the United States and Texas and its heritage and abundant natural resources.” Patricia Hardy, the board member who proposed the changes, told E&E News, “If they’re going to tout how wonderful the alternative climate change stuff is, then they need to also say all the things that are not good about it and not just hit on the fossil fuel industry.” She added, “Our schools are paid for by the fossil fuel industry for the most part.”
Texas’s Senate Bill 2089 would, if enacted, amend the state education code to require that instructional material adopted by the state board of education “present a scientific theory in an objective educational manner that: (i) clearly distinguishes the theory from fact; and (ii) includes evidence for both the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of the theory.” More at NCSE here and here.
Massachusetts–No fewer than three bills aimed at supporting climate change education in the Bay State in various ways were introduced in the Massachusetts House of Representatives on February 16, 2023.
House Bill 470 would establish a Climate Science Education Trust Fund, which would “be used to support the development, purchase and implementation of curriculum and educational resources related to professional development for educators and costs associated with curriculum implementation.”
House Bill 496 would require the state standards for science, technology, and engineering to be revised “to include relevant and interdisciplinary climate change standards that will provide students with a deeper understanding of anthropogenic climate change.”
House Bill 576 would require state environmental science and environmental protection standards to be revised to “promote an understanding of climate change including, but not limited to: (i) the human impact on the carbon cycle; (ii) the effect of climate change on life that exists on Earth; (iii) the effects of the environment on health, economics, and agricultural systems; (iv) the impact of climate change on the water cycle; and (v) the impact of the environment on natural disasters and weather.” More at NCSE.
New York–New York’s Senate Bill 5661 would, if enacted, “require climate change instruction within the current established science curriculum for grades one through twelve in all public schools.” Correspondingly, school authorities would be required to support such instruction. Introduced by James Sanders Jr. (D-District 10), on March 13, 2023, the bill was referred to the Senate Education Committee.
Senate Bill 5661 joins six previously introduced bills active in the New York legislature supporting climate change education. More at NCSE.
Minnesota–Minnesota’s House File 2297 would, if enacted, require the state commissioner of education to “provide a climate justice model program for elementary and secondary school students aligned with current scientific research.” The bill was introduced by Larry Kraft (Democratic-Farmer-Labor-District 46A) and five of his colleagues on February 28, 2023, and referred to the House Education Policy Committee.
House File 2297 is the counterpart of Senate File 476, which passed the Senate Education Policy Committee but was re-referred to the Senate Education Finance Committee.
Minnesota’s Senate File 517 — which would, if enacted, have require school districts in the state to “provide instruction to students in grades 9 to 12 exploring the contrast between the scientific facts on how sickness, disease, pain, suffering, and death relate to the existence of complex living organisms, and how sickness, disease, pain, suffering, and death are a consequence imposed by the Creator of complex living organisms” — died in committee on March 10, 2023, when a deadline for bills to pass committee in their house of origin passed.
More at NCSE here and here and Sensuous Curmudgeon.
Rhode Island–Two pairs of bills in Rhode Island, House Bill 6105 (PDF) and the identical Senate Bill 551 (PDF), and House Bill 6106 (PDF) and the identical Senate Bill 558 (PDF), seek to establish the Rhode Island Climate Change and Ocean Protection Education Program.
If enacted, the bills would appropriate “no less than” $500,000 per fiscal year to support “climate change and/or ocean protection programs.” The funds would be disbursed by the department of labor and training to state and local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, professional associations, and youth development and non-profit organizations engaging in such programs. Professional development for teachers would be a priority. More at NCSE.
West Virginia–West Virginia’s Senate Bill 619 — which would, if enacted, have allowed “[t]eachers in public schools, including public charter schools, that include any one or more of grades Kindergarten through 12, [to] teach intelligent design as a theory of how the universe and/or humanity came to exist” — died when the legislature adjourned sine die at midnight, March 10, 2023. More at NCSE and Sensuous Curmudgeon.
STRESSED PLANTS MAKE ULTRASONIC CLICKING NOISES
Listen carefully, and a plant may tell you it’s thirsty.
Dry tomato and tobacco plants emit distinct ultrasonic clicks, scientists report March 30 in Cell. The noises sound something like a kid stomping on bubble wrap and also popped off when scientists snipped the plants’ stems.
When evolutionary biologist Lilach Hadany gives talks about her team’s results, she says, people tell her, “‘You cut the tomato and it screams.’” But that is jumping to a conclusion her team has not yet reached. “Screaming” assumes the plant is intentionally making the noise, Hadany says. In the new study, “we’ve shown only that plants emit informative sounds.” More at Science News, New York Times, and BBC. Original paper in Cell.
ANTARCTIC SEA ICE COVER AT RECORD LOW
Sea ice in Antarctica shrank to the smallest area on record in February for the second year in a row, continuing a decade-long decline, the European Union’s climate monitoring service said.
On February 16, the ocean surface covered by ice around the frozen continent shrank to 2.09 million square kilometers (800,000 square miles), the lowest level since satellite records began, according to figures provided to AFP by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
“Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest extent in the 45-year satellite data record,” said Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of C3S. More at phys.org. Original report at C3S.
T. REX MAY HAVE HAD LIPS LIKE A MODERN LIZARD’S
In movies and TV shows, Tyrannosaurus rex often sports a fleet of big, sharp teeth that are almost always on display. But the dinosaurs and their kin may have kept their pearly whites mostly tucked behind lizardlike lips.
Similar to Komodo dragons today, these dinosaurs had ample soft tissue around the mouth that would have functioned as lips, an analysis of fossilized and modern reptile skulls and teeth finds. The research, described in the March 31 Science, challenges common, traditional reconstructions of how these top predators appeared in life. More at Science News, phys.orghere and here, Gizmodo, Nature, and Science. Original paper in Science.
IN A FIRST, RENEWABLES BEAT COAL IN THE US POWER SECTOR IN 2022
For the first time ever, renewable power generation – that’s wind, solar, hydro, biomass, and geothermal – exceeded coal-fired generation in the US electric power sector in 2022, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Overall, the US electric power sector produced 4,090 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of power in 2022.
Wind and solar’s combined total generation increased from 12% in 2021 to 14% in 2022. Hydropower stayed the same last year at 6%, and biomass and geothermal also remained unchanged, at less than 1%. So that’s a total of 21%.
Utility-scale solar capacity in the US electric power sector – the EIA doesn’t include rooftop solar – increased from 61 gigawatts (GW) in 2021 to 71 GW in 2022, according to EIA data. Wind capacity grew from 133 GW in 2021 to 141 GW in 2022.
Coal-fired generation, on the other hand, dropped from 23% in 2021 to 20% in 2022 because a number of coal-fired power plants retired, and the plants still online were used less. More at electrek and slashdot. Data at U.S. Energy Information Administration.
MARCH VIDEOS
Dance Your PhD 2023 OVERALL WINNER: nanoMOFs
Dance your PhD 2023 [Biology Winner]: ABA at the Heart of Amazon rainforest Response to Warming
Historical Dragonflies in Oklahoma
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