Coca-Cola’s 2011-2012 Arctic Home campaign, which came in two phases after the white cans of regular Coke confused the soda addicts, was too late to help a selection of survey respondents improve their polar knowledge.  At best it would have only achieved the bare minimum when it comes to knowledge of Earth’s polar regions -it would have raised awareness and little else.

Raising awareness is good because it could lead to concern which then leads to action. But a research study conducted by the Carsey Institute of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) says even with much ado about the polar regions it has led to not much but political-driven opinions.

“People’s knowledge of polar regions and issues improved from 2006 to 2010, consistent with hopes that the International Polar Year in 2007 would boost public awareness. Unfortunately, we did not see a companion increase in concern about the environmental changes in these regions, due, in part, to ideological and political divisions,” said Lawrence Hamilton, professor of sociology at UNH and a senior fellow at the Carsey Institute.  UNH researchers did not conduct the survey nor did they design the questions they just analyzed the data.

The General Social Surveys were conducted by The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago in 2006 and 2010 before and after the International Polar Year (07-08) which should have taken care of gaps in knowledge or awareness. NORC surveyed “nationally representative samples of the English-speaking population aged 18 years or older, living in noninstitutional settings across the United States” and in 2006 that included Spanish-speakers. 

Part of the survey had eleven general science questions and the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs wrote five questions to gauge “polar knowledge,” and six about “polar concern.” The questions covered the topics: “climate change, melting ice, rising sea levels, and human or ecological impacts from environmental change.” The results showed that “the public’s knowledge about the north and south polar regions showed modest gains between 2006 and 2010. They also found survey participants’ “average ‘polar knowledge score’ improved from 53 to 59 percent.”

While the “polar knowledge score” improved the general science literacy score did not. Unsurprisingly, respondents with more science knowledge care more about environmental changes in the polar regions and would like to preserve the Antarctic for science and not development.

“Among the environment-related issues, all but reserving Antarctica for science show increasing political polarization — and even support for reserving the Antarctic divides along party lines. Polar issues, like many other topics in science, increasingly are viewed by the public through politically tinted glasses,” Hamilton said.

While it’s true we should be viewing science through science-tinted glasses it has become increasingly difficult to do so in our politically charged environment and with various scientific opinions at times doing more to confuse than clarify.

Test your “polar knowledge” with the survey’s questions:

1. The North Pole is on a sheet of ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean (True/False)

2. The sun never shines at the South Pole (True/False) 

3. Inuit (often called Eskimos) live north of the Arctic Circle (True/False) 

4. Hunting is more likely than climate change to make polar bears become extinct (True/False) 

5. Would you say the polar ice caps have gotten larger or smaller over the last 25 years?