|
People
stand
together
holding
placards
during
the
March
for
Science
day in
Geneva,
Switzerland,
Saturday,
April 22
2017.
Thousands
of
people
are
expected
to
attend
March
for
Science
events
around
the
world to
promote
the
understanding
of
science
and
defend
it from
various
attacks,
including
U.S.
government
budget
cuts.
(Martial
Trezzini/Keystone
via AP) |
|
Scientists
leave
labs,
take to
streets
to
defend
research
Advocates
fan out
in
global
show of
support
for
science
By SETH
BORENSTEIN
ap.org
WASHINGTON
-
Scientists,
students
and
research
advocates
rallied
from the
Brandenburg
Gate to
the
Washington
Monument
on Earth
Day,
conveying
a global
message
of
scientific
freedom
without
political
interference
and
spending
necessary
to make
future
breakthroughs
possible.
"We
didn't
choose
to be in
this
battle,
but it
has come
to the
point
where we
have to
fight
because
the
stakes
are too
great,"
said
climate
scientist
Michael
Mann,
who
regularly
clashes
with
politicians.
President
Donald
Trump,
in an
Earth
Day
statement
hours
after
the
marches
kicked
off,
said
that
"rigorous
science
depends
not on
ideology,
but on a
spirit
of
honest
inquiry
and
robust
debate."
Standing
on the
National
Mall
with
thousands
soaked
by rain
Saturday,
Mann
said
that
like
other
scientists,
he would
rather
be in
his lab,
the
field or
teaching
students.
But
driving
his
advocacy
are
officials
who deny
his
research
that
shows
rising
global
temperatures.
In
Gainesville,
Florida,
more
than
1,000
people
stretched
through
the
city's
streets.
"Most
people
don't
know how
much
funding
for the
sciences
supports
them in
their
lives
every
day.
Every
medical
breakthrough,
their
food,
clothing,
our
cellphones,
our
computers,
all that
is
science-based,"
said
Pati
Vitt, a
plant
scientist
at the
Chicago
Botanic
Garden.
"So if
we stop
funding
scientific
discoveries
now, in
10
years,
whatever
we might
have had
won't
be, we
just
won't
have
it."
At the
event in
Nashville,
Tennessee,
where
marchers
shouted
"science,
not
silence,"
lawyer
Jatin
Shah
brought
his
sons, a
5-year-old
who
wants to
be a
dentist
and
6-year-old
who
plans to
be a
doctor.
Shah
worries
about
the
boys'
futures
if money
is cut
for the
sciences.
"I fear
that
we're
not
going to
have the
planet
that you
and I
grew up
on
unless
we find
new ways
to make
this
earth as
livable
as
possible
for as
long as
we can,"
Shah
said.
"And
we're
not
going to
have as
intellectual
a
society
as we
should.
We need
as many
people
as
possible
to be
educated
in the
sciences."
People
there
carried
signs
that
said
"there
is no
planet
B,"
''make
America
think
again"
and
"climate
change
is real,
ask any
polar
bear."
Marchers
in
Geneva
held
signs
that
said,
"Science
- A
Candle
in the
Dark"
and
"Science
is the
Answer."
In
Berlin,
several
thousand
people
participated
in a
march
from one
of the
city's
universities
to the
landmark
Brandenburg
Gate.
"'We
need to
make
more of
our
decisions
based on
facts
again
and less
on
emotions,"
said
Meike
Weltin,
a
doctorate
student
at an
environmental
institute
near the
capital.
In
London,
physicists,
astronomers,
biologists
and
celebrities
gathered
for a
march
past the
city's
most
celebrated
research
institutions.
Supporters
carried
signs
showing
images
of a
double
helix
and
chemical
symbols.
In
Spain,
hundreds
assembled
in
Madrid,
Barcelona
and
Seville.
Organizers
portrayed
the
march as
political
but not
partisan,
promoting
the
understanding
of
science
as well
as
defending
it from
various
attacks,
including
proposed
U.S.
government
budget
cuts
under
Trump,
such as
a 20
percent
slice of
the
National
Institute
of
Health.
Trump's
statement
Saturday
said his
administration
was
"committed
to
advancing
scientific
research
that
leads to
a better
understanding
of our
environment
and of
environmental
risks."
The
rallies
set for
more
than 500
cities
were
putting
scientists,
who
generally
shy away
from
advocacy
and
whose
work
depends
on
objective
experimentation,
into a
more
public
position.
Scientists
said
they
were
anxious
about
political
and
public
rejection
of
established
science
such as
climate
change
and the
safety
of
vaccine
immunizations.
"Scientists
find it
appalling
that
evidence
has been
crowded
out by
ideological
assertions,"
said
Rush
Holt, a
former
physicist
and
Democratic
congressman
who runs
the
American
Association
for the
Advancement
of
Science.
"It is
not just
about
Donald
Trump,
but
there is
also no
question
that
marchers
are
saying
'when
the shoe
fits."
Judy
Twigg, a
public
health
professor
at
Virginia
Commonwealth
University,
was
aiming
one of
her
signs at
the
president.
The sign
showed
the
periodic
table of
chemical
elements
and
said:
"You're
out of
your
element
Donny
(Trump)."
For
Twigg,
who was
wearing
a
T-shirt
that
said
"Science
is not a
liberal
conspiracy,"
research
is a
matter
of life
and
death on
issues
such as
polio
and
child
mortality.
Despite
saying
the
march
was not
partisan,
Holt
acknowledged
it was
only
dreamed
up at
the
Women's
March on
Washington,
a day
after
Trump's
Jan. 20
inauguration.
"It's
not
about
the
current
administration.
The
truth is
we
should
have
been
marching
for
science
30 years
ago, 20
years,
10 years
ago,"
said
co-organizer
and
public
health
researcher
Caroline
Weinberg.
"The
current
(political)
situation
took us
from
kind of
ignoring
science
to
blatantly
attacking
it. And
that
seems to
be
galvanizing
people
in a way
it never
has
before.
... It's
just
sort of
relentless
attacks
on
science."
"The
scientific
method
was
developed
to be
nonpartisan
and
objective,"
Weinberg
said.
"It
should
be
embraced
by both
parties."
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