‘What do we want? Evidence’
Thousands march for science free of political interference in U.S., Canada, around world
WASHINGTON— The world saw brain power take a different form Saturday. From the Washington Monument to Germany’s Brandenburg Gate and even Greenland, scientists, students and research advocates rallied on a soggy Earth Day, conveying a global message about scientific freedom without political interference, the need for adequate spending for future breakthroughs and the general value of scientific pursuits.
They came in numbers that were mammoth if not quite astronomical.
U.S. 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.”
Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael 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. When he went on stage, he got the biggest applause for his simple opening: “I am a climate scientist.”
In Los Angeles, Danny Leserman, the 26-year-old director of digital media for the county’s Democratic party, said, “We used to look up to intelligence and aspire to learn more and do more with that intellectual curiosity. And we’ve gone from there to a society where . . . our officials and representatives belittle science and they belittle intelligence. And we really need a culture change.”
The rallies in more than 600 cities put 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.
Despite saying the march was nonpartisan, Rush Holt, a former physicist and Democratic congressman, acknowledged it was only dreamed up at the Women’s March on Washington, a day after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
In Washington, the sign that 9-year-old Sam Klimas of Parkersburg, W.Va., held was red, handmade and personal: “Science saved my life.” He had a form of brain cancer and has been healthy for eight years now.
Signs around the globe ranged from political ones — “Make America think again” — to the somewhat nerdy “What Do Want? Evidence. When do want it? After peer review” to the downright obscure Star Trek and Star Wars references.
In London, physicists, astronomers and biologists gathered at the city’s research institutions. In Spain, hundreds assembled in Madrid, Barcelona and Seville.
In Canada, scientists gathered across the country to rally in support of their American counterparts. Science advocate Katie Gibbs said that when Canadian scientists felt threatened, they got a lot of support from their U.S. counterparts.
Gibbs, who marched in Ottawa, warned that in spite of progress under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration, Canadians aren’t entirely out of the woods yet. She said American scientists faced similar is- sues under George W. Bush, but thought they were in the clear when Barack Obama took office.
Meanwhile, in Vancouver, soggy conditions didn’t deter thousands from taking to combat what organizers called an erosion of public trust in science in recent years. In Halifax, protesters turned up near city hall to show their support for evidencebased policy-making, some carrying signs like “Defiance for Science” and “Without Science, It’s Just Fiction.”
Organizers of the U.S. event portrayed the march as political but non-partisan, promoting the understanding of science as well as defending it from various attacks, including proposed U.S. government budget cuts under Trump.
“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.”
Ice photographer and filmmaker James Balog, who says he has watched trillions of tons of ice melt, told the Washington crowd: “We shall never, ever surrender.”