For those who don’t follow national weather patterns, it was an exceptionally snowy April, especially in Minnesota, or shall I say even for Minnesota. There was at least some snow on the ground from roughly December 8th through May 2nd in the Twin Cities. This limited data set causes people to make comments like the following, “I don’t want to hear anymore about global warming.” A bus rider** made this very statement the day after Earth Day.
Here’s my problem: this individual was not a scientist. Most people who espouse the (dis)belief regarding climate change are not scientists. In fact, something on the order of 97% of climate scientists do believe in climate change. If the term global warming isn’t for you, that’s fine, but unless you know the data and evidence, please do not make misinformed statements about scientific concepts that are no longer debated by mainstream science and please don’t trot out tired arguments like “it’s only a theory” or “just a few decades ago scientists said there was global cooling.”
As a former classroom teacher, who still considers myself an educator, the lack of understanding about science is extremely disconcerting. One of the biggest issues I have is that people take small sample sizes (one storm, one season) and try to refute thousands of data points. Science is an ongoing exercise. It behooves everyone to become a bit more literate in this evolving (yes, I chose that word for a reason) discipline.
**We got stuck at the bus stop since we missed the previous bus and chatted for a bit. We chatted about hiking the Appalachian Trail.
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