March for Science: Protesters gather worldwide to support 'evidence'
Story highlights
- Organizers say more than 600 marches taking place worldwide
- The protests are billed as being political but nonpartisan
(CNN)Crowds
massed in the US capital and around the world Saturday to support
science and evidence-based research -- a protest partly fueled by
opposition to President Donald Trump's threats of budget cuts to
agencies funding scientists' work.
At the main March for Science,
demonstrators gathered at Washington's National Mall to hear speakers
laud science as the force moving humanity forward, and rail against
policymakers they say are ignoring fact and research in areas including
climate change.
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Marching in support of scientific research in Berlin, Germany. Many of the marches are featuring music and speeches.
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Photos: The March for Science from around the world
A
woman in Vienna, Austria,attends the March for Science there. In the
US, many marchers have been galvanized by President Donald Trump's
proposed cuts to scientific research, including slashing $5.8 billion
from the budget of the National Institutes of Health.
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Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Researchers and scientist protest against budget cuts during the March for Science in Madrid, Spain.
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Photos: The March for Science from around the world
People stand together in Martin Place, in Sydney, Australia,for the city's international March for Science.
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Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Scientists and science enthusiasts gather prior to the start of the March for Science in central London.
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Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Members
of the Union for Concerned Scientists with Muppet character Beaker
protest in front of The White House in Washington D.C., before heading
to the National Mall for the March for Science.
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11 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
People
in cities around the world take part in a global March for Science on
Saturday, April 22, to show support of scientific research. Berlin,
Germany, residents march behind a sign that reads, "There are no
alternatives to facts."
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1 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Scientists and science enthusiasts marched in London.
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Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Marchers
gathering in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Similar marches
are expected to draw people in more than 500 cities across the world.
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3 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Marchers
at the Paris March for Science holding signs. In addition to Paris and
Berlin, marches will be taking place in Rio, Munich, San Francisco,
Boston, Oklahoma City and Bratislava, Slovakia.
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Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Scientists at the Neumayer Station in Antarctica take part in the March for Science on April, 22.
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5 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Marching in support of scientific research in Berlin, Germany. Many of the marches are featuring music and speeches.
Hide Caption
6 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
A
woman in Vienna, Austria,attends the March for Science there. In the
US, many marchers have been galvanized by President Donald Trump's
proposed cuts to scientific research, including slashing $5.8 billion
from the budget of the National Institutes of Health.
Hide Caption
7 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Researchers and scientist protest against budget cuts during the March for Science in Madrid, Spain.
Hide Caption
8 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
People stand together in Martin Place, in Sydney, Australia,for the city's international March for Science.
Hide Caption
9 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Scientists and science enthusiasts gather prior to the start of the March for Science in central London.
Hide Caption
10 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Members
of the Union for Concerned Scientists with Muppet character Beaker
protest in front of The White House in Washington D.C., before heading
to the National Mall for the March for Science.
Hide Caption
11 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
People
in cities around the world take part in a global March for Science on
Saturday, April 22, to show support of scientific research. Berlin,
Germany, residents march behind a sign that reads, "There are no
alternatives to facts."
Hide Caption
1 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Scientists and science enthusiasts marched in London.
Hide Caption
2 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Marchers
gathering in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Similar marches
are expected to draw people in more than 500 cities across the world.
Hide Caption
3 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Marchers
at the Paris March for Science holding signs. In addition to Paris and
Berlin, marches will be taking place in Rio, Munich, San Francisco,
Boston, Oklahoma City and Bratislava, Slovakia.
Hide Caption
4 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Scientists at the Neumayer Station in Antarctica take part in the March for Science on April, 22.
Hide Caption
5 of 11
Photos: The March for Science from around the world
Marching in support of scientific research in Berlin, Germany. Many of the marches are featuring music and speeches.
Hide Caption
6 of 11
"Today
we have a great many lawmakers -- not just here but around the world --
deliberately ignoring and actively suppressing science," one of the
event's speakers, TV host and scientist Bill Nye, told a rain-soaked
crowd from a stage.
"Their
inclination is misguided and in no one's best interest. Our lives are
in every way improved by having clean water, reliable electricity and
access to electronic global information."
Besides
the Washington march, organizers said more than 600 "satellite" marches
were taking place globally in a protest timed to coincide with Earth Day.
'That guy over there' in the White House
The march, whose beginnings reflect the viral birth of the Women's March on Washington, was billed by its organizers as political but nonpartisan.
But
many messages were leveled at Trump and his party, which holds
majorities in Congress. Scientists have raised alarms over Trump's
budget blueprint, which would cut $12.6 billion from the Department of Health and Human Services, including $5.8 billion from the National Institutes of Health alone.
One
speaker said the administration "tries but fails to silence
scientists." Several contrasted rationality and scientific thought to
"alternative facts," a phrase that's attracted popular derision since a White House aide uttered it.
With
the White House in view, protesters held signs with messages such as
"In peer review we trust" and "It's the environment, stupid."
The crowd fended off a steady rain with umbrellas and jackets as event co-host Questlove alluded to Trump.
"That
guy over there," the musician and producer said from a stage north of
the Washington Monument. "It's been frustrating to watch as certain
forces in our society try to squelch science or their refusal to believe
in it or propose alternative realities and facts -- alternative facts,
whatever that (expletive) is."
Demonstrators push forward Saturday in Chicago's March for Science.
Demonstrators were to march from the National Mall to Union Square.
Joni
Wright, a neurophysiology graduate student at the University of
Florida, cited the Trump administration as a reason why she was in the
crowd.
"Science is really
important, and the current administration is making decisions that are
counter to climate change, genetically modified food and vaccinations,"
Wright, 38, told CNN.
Major US marches also were
planned for Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. In Chicago,
thousands marched from Grant Park to the Field Museum for a science
exposition, CNN affiliate WBBM-TV reported.
Marches start in Australia
Demonstrators in Australia kicked off the day of protest.
In
Sydney, marchers carried banners, many homemade, with slogans such as
"Science makes sense," "Science-based policy = stuff that works," and
"Climate change is real, clean coal is not."
Another placard displayed the message, "Governments: stop ignoring inconvenient science!"
It wasn't only major cities where scientists and their supporters came out.
Rebecca
McElroy, an astrophysics doctoral student at the University of Sydney,
tweeted video of a "mini march for science" around the dome of the
Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales.
Demonstrators also turned out in New Zealand cities, including Wellington, Auckland, Dunedin and Christchurch.
New
Zealand Green Party co-leader James Shaw tweeted a popular chant from
the marchers: "What do we want? Evidence-based science! When do we want
it? After peer review!"
Marches were also held in Durban and Cape Town, South Africa, and in Tokyo.
'Broader vision'
Crowds converge Saturday in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin support of scientific research.
Scientists
and their supporters were urged to turn out in force in London as well
as other marches in France, Ireland, Finland, Germany, Portugal and the
Netherlands.
David Johnson, 35, a
doctoral student in London, said he was marching because he felt climate
change was being sidelined by the US administration and that science
was being demonized.
Another London marcher,
24-year-old student Rachel Denley Bowers, said science was important and
that budget cuts affected research.
Roger
Morris, professor of molecular neurobiology at King's College London,
said: "These marches are brilliant -- a spontaneous, global response led
by young scientists empowered by social media, keenly aware of the
global challenges that need to be addressed if their world is to have a
civilized, sustainable future.
"Insular
populist politics, which have temporarily triumphed in the US and UK,
need to be balanced by the broader vision of youth."
Katherine
Mathieson, chief executive of the British Science Association, said she
hoped the marches would be a catalyst for people to think about the
role science plays in their lives and a chance for scientists to
demonstrate the public benefit of their work.
"Protecting
the government's investment in science, particularly when that includes
funding for public engagement, is incredibly important," she said.
"Science is not just for scientists, and I believe that all of us,
whether we work in a lab or not, should have a voice on its future."
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Trump's budget proposal, unveiled in March, outlined $54 billion in cuts across government programs to make way for an increase in defense spending.
US
scientists said they fear such a plan would have a major impact on
research and science-based policy as well as undermine the importance of
science in society and limit future innovation.
"It
might have been ignited by Trump, but it's not about Trump," march
honorary co-chair Lydia Villa-Komaroff ahead of the event. "It's about
the importance of science in society and continuing the support for the
science community in keeping our edge."
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