DAILY QUICK READ - SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

Lots of climate change and 6th Extinction stuff today.  And, one story of bird conservation by the U.S. Army - thank you "First Team!"

But first ; from More Trees Less Assholes:

We are the Asteroid

A lesson in extinction.  

Curiosity Drives Science Understand

What you know about science doesn’t determine your position on climate change, but your curiosity and willingness to learn does influence your ability to accept positions thatare different than your own.

Time and time again, research has shown that political affiliation greatly influences people’s opinions on leading scientific issues like fracking, climate change, vaccines, or nuclear power. And before you jump to conclusion, virtually everybody lets politics get the better of them since having a top education or scoring high on science tests does little to nothing to cure bias. Instead, the least vulnerable people to bias might be the curious, a new study suggests.

Researchers at Yale University think the key might lie in curiosity. A team there led by Dan Kahan assessed study participants using two scales. One scale gauged their scientific literacy and thinking using a fairly standard questionnaire packed with questions about science facts and methods. The other scale was far more ingenious and innovative and was meant to gauge scientific curiosity and not how much science they already knew.

“The data we’ve collected furnish a strong basis for viewing science curiosity as an important individual difference in cognitive style that interacts in a distinctive way with political information processing,” the Yale researchers wrote in their paper.

Denial Is Just Business for Republicans

Driven by the Tea Party, the right wing media and billionaires who just want more money, the Republican Party has decide to do nothing about global warming and climate change.  In other words the rest of us can go to hell – which will be most places on the planet in another century.

"What was once a modest tendency for Congressional Republicans to be less pro-environmental than their Democratic counterparts has become a chasm—with Republicans taking near-unanimous anti-environmental stances on relevant legislation in recent years, especially 2015," the study said.

As they stoked fears about the U.S. government attempting to pass legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions, the Tea Party normalized climate denial throughout the Republican Party, according to Oklahoma State University's Prof. Riley E. Dunlap and Jerrod H. Yarosh, and Michigan State Associate Professor Aaron M. McCright.

Conservative newspaper The Wall Street Journal was found to publish inaccurate information on the topic, according to a report by Media Matters for America.

"Out of 93 climate-related opinion pieces published in the Journal during the time period examined, 31 featured climate science denial or other scientifically inaccurate claims about climate change (33 percent)," Media Matters for America said.

A 2013 study found that those Americans who consumed news from conservative news sources such as Fox had a higher distrust of science and scientists, than did those who read or watched non-conservative media.

Breaking through to those who fiercely deny the existence of climate change is no easy task, the Oklahoma State University researchers concluded.

The countermovement includes "fossil fuel corporations and business allies like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, conservative think tanks and their funders, conservative media, and a large supporting cast of front groups, bloggers and contrarian scientists," the Oklahoma State University study said.

Ft. Hood – Armor and Songbirds

Some of the great conservation stories come from military facilities. 

War transformed the nature of farmlands of central Texas. During World War II, what had been a landscape checker-spotted with oak-juniper woodlands turned into a busy Camp Hood. This had some unexpected results for wildlife, including the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler.

Today, live weapons fire from helicopters, the roar of mechanized combat vehicles, and the clomp of tanks rumbling over the terrain like massive bulldozers with cannons are all common sights and sounds at Fort Hood.

And as of late, two songbirds are also increasingly common: the Golden-cheeked Warbler and the Black-capped Vireo. In seemingly incongruent fashion, the wispy songs of these two federally endangered birds sweeten the springtime air of Fort Hood.

Fort Hood has been a willing and eager partner in conservation of these rare birds for almost a quarter century.

As a result of more than two decades of research and conservation work at Fort Hood on the vireo and warbler, today the base operates without the training restrictions that had previously been in place.

Fort Hood has demonstrated that natural resources entrusted to the Department of Defense's care are not only sustained, but can be improved, all while ensuring that military training and testing are uncompromised.

Fort Hood serves as a model for other military installations across the country, clearly demonstrating that national defense and conservation are not mutually exclusive.