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Nuclear power gets more support, offshore drilling less from scientists than general public: Surveys


January 30, 2015   by Canadian Underwriter


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The percentage of the American general population opposed to building more nuclear power plants is greater than the percentage of members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, while the number of AAAS members agreeing that “climate change is mostly due to human activity” is greater than that of the general population, a recent pair of surveys released Thursday suggest.

AAAS and the Pew Research Center released Thursday a report on two different surveys – one of the general population and the other of AAAS members – of opinion on several topics, including nuclear power, global warming, offshore oil drilling, hydraulic fracturing, the safety of genetically modified foods and vaccination for children.

American Association for the Advancement of Science and Pew Research compare opinions of AAAS members with those of general public on nuclear power, global warming and other risks

Fewer than half (45%) of U.S. residents, from the general public, said they favour building more nuclear power plants, while nearly two-thirds (65%) of AAAS respondents said they were.

Membership in AAAS is “open to all individuals who support the goals and objectives of the Association and are willing to contribute to the achievement of those goals and objectives,” AAAS says on its website.

Of the 3,748 members AAAS members surveyed, nearly half (1,802) identified their “primary discipline” as bio/medical sciences, while 429 were in chemistry, 333 were in social sciences or policy, 328 were in physics or astronomy, 270 were in earth sciences, 243 were in engineering, 182 were in math/computer sciences and 158 were in other disciplines.

The online survey of AAAS members had a margin of error of 1.7 percentage points, at the 95% level of confidence.

Of the AAAS respondents, fewer than one in 30 (3%) thought there was “no solid evidence that the earth was getting warmer,” 87% said they thought that the earth “is getting warmer mostly because of human activity such as burning fossil fuels” and 9% said the earth is getting warmer mostly because of natural patterns in the earth’s environment. One per cent gave no answer.

Only half the respondents from the general population agreed that the earth is getting warmer because of human activity such as burning fossil fuels, while 23% said it is getting warmer “mostly because of natural patterns in the earth’s environment” while one in four said there was no evidence that the earth is getting warmer.

The phone survey of the general public (U.S. residents) was conducted last August. There were 2,002 respondents and the margin of error was 3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Respondents were asked whether they favour or oppose the “the increased use of fracking, a drilling method that uses high-pressure water and chemicals to extract oil and natural gas from underground rock formations.” About half (51%) of the respondents from the general population were opposed, while 39% were in favour. Fewer AAAS members (31%) were in favour while 66% of AAAS members surveyed were opposed to more fracking.

When asked whether they favour or oppose “allowing more offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters,” 66% of AAAS members were opposed while 32% were in favour. By contrast, more than half (52%) of the general public favoured more offshore drilling while 44% were opposed.

Ask to think about “childhood diseases, such as measles, mumps, rubella and polio,” 68% of respondents from the general public said all children should be required to be vaccinated while 30% said parents should be able to decide not to vaccinate. Meanwhile, 86% of AAAS members said all children should be required to be vaccinated.

Nearly nine in 10 AAAS members (88%) said genetically modified foods are safe to eat, while only 37% of the general population surveyed said this was the case, while 57% of citizens said genetically modified foods are not safe to eat.

“Only 15% of AAAS scientists say they believe the best science guides policy regulations about land use most of the time or more often; 27% think the best science frequently guides decisions about clean air and water; 46% think the best science is frequently used in food safety policies and 58% say the same when it comes to regulations about new drug and medical treatments,” AAAS stated in a release.


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