The Pew Research Center article U.S. trails most developed countries in voter turnout by Drew Desilver (5/21/18) provides a summary of voting percentages by country in the chart copied here (data available). In terms of the percent of eligible voters, the U.S. is near the bottom with 56% voting n …
Read More »How do we take the temperature of the oceans?
The recent BBC article Climate change: Oceans ‘soaking up more heat than estimated’ by Matt McGrath (11/1/18) reports the result from a recent study showing that the oceans have warmed more than previously thought. How did they do it? In short, from the BBC article: The key element is the fact …
Read More »Will this be an warmer El Niño winter?
The NOAA Climate.gov article Another mild winter? NOAA’s 2018-19 winter outlook by Mike Halpert (10/22/18) discusses the likelihood of El Niño this winter and the impact on temperatures. The discussion of prediction and probabilities can be used in QL and stats courses: I again remind readers (if this seems repetitive, well, it …
Read More »How are climatic zones changing?
The Yale Environment 360 article Redrawing the Map: How the World’s Climate Zones Are Shifting by Nicola Jones (10/23/18) provides animated maps, such as the one below, and quantitative statements about changing ecology including rates (great for a calculus class): Lauren Parker and John Abatzoglou of the University of Idaho tracked what would …
Read More »How much have fall nighttime temperatures risen?
According to the Climate Central post, Fall Nights Are Warming in Our Changing Climate (10/17/18), of 244 cities in the U.S., 83 percent have average fall low temperatures on the rise. For example, the graph here is for NYC. Why does this matter: Warming fall nights mean more than just a …
Read More »What is the relationship between rates of suspension by race and free and reduced lunch?
Propublica’s article, Miseducation – Is There Racial Inequality at Your School? by Lena V. Groeger, Annie Waldman and David Eads, (10/16/18), provides data by state on the percent of nonwhite students, the percent of students who get free/reduced-price lunch, high school graduation rate, the number of times White students are likely to be in an …
Read More »Who misses school the most?
The EPI article, Student absenteeism – Who misses school and how missing school matters for performance by Emma García and Elaine Weiss (9/25/18) provides a detailed account of absenteeism based on race and gender. For example, their chart here is the percent of students that missed three or more days in the month prior to …
Read More »What is in the new IPCC report?
The is too much in the new IPCC report (released this week) to cover here, but we can highlight a couple of points. The first is their graph copied here. The main graph provides projections for change in global temperature based on what happens to CO2 and non-CO2 radiative forcing …
Read More »Who perceives our economic system as fair or not fair?
The Pew Research Center’s article Partisans are divided over the fairness of the U.S. economy – and why people are rich or poor by Amina Dunn (10/4/18) provides interesting results about perceptions of our economic system. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults (63%) say the nation’s economic system unfairly favors powerful interests, compared with …
Read More »How well do we understand rising sea levels?
NASA’s Vital Signs of the Planet feature, Keeping score on Earth’s rising seas by Pat Brennan (9/1918) summarizes a recent paper that “ ‘closes’ the sea-level budget to within 0.3 millimeters of sea-level rise per year since 1993.” A just-published paper assembles virtually all the puzzle pieces – melting ice, warming and …
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