Is it an exaggeration to urge you to
“March for Science to Save Your Life”?
It is not.
Anti-science agendas and policies are being forced on the American people by politicians and corporations that intentionally choose to deny the very scientific principles upon which our entire civilization is based.
Rather than work in good faith to protect us, many companies actively oppose laws, regulations and initiatives that would keep us safe from toxic chemicals, protect the air we breathe and the water we drink, and stop the climate change that threatens to send the entire planet into a tail spin.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, the internationally renowned astrophysicist, says in this compelling 4-minute video that when people who deny science rise to power, they concoct a “recipe for a complete dismantling of our democracy.” He is right.
Science has allowed us to build our economy. Stop disease. Grow food. Put a man on the moon. Invent electric cars.
You can read this digital article thanks to computer science. Binge on Netflix. Facetime with your friends and family.
You can buy organic food because soil scientists and the scientists who study pests and plant disease have figured out how to grow our fruits and vegetables without spraying them with cancer-causing chemicals.
You have clothes to wear, furniture to sit on, deodorant to keep you smelling sweet, and coffee to drink, all because some inventor somewhere along the way used science to create them.
Basically, any service you value, any health care you receive, any medical emergency you’ve survived, any work you do, are all possible because science made them possible.
And yet – the Trump Administration is now destroying
the science-based programs and projects that society desperately needs.
It started with one particularly symbolic move: the Administration eliminated the word “science” from the mission statement of its Office of Science and Technology Policy. Whaaa?
But it didn’t stop there. Whole programs that reduce pollution and rein in climate change are coming under attack.
Don’t Miss: Pope Francis Calls for “Revolution” to Stop Climate Change
Writing here in the Los Angeles Times, Denis Hayes, who convened the very first Earth Day in 1970, describes Trump’s insidious plan to defund scientific research and the agencies that are doing the most to protect the planet and human health.
Specifically, the Trump budget would:
- Decimate the ability of the National Institutes of Health to continue to come up with ways to fight the spread of infections diseases like ebola and zika.
- Cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research by 50%.
- Eliminate the Sea Grant Program, which helps us protect and sustain coastal ecosystems and restore the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay and other waterways.
- Kneecap the U.S. solar energy industry, even though, says Hayes, in 2016 solar energy was America’s largest source of new electricity-generating capacity and the U.S. solar industry employs 260,000 people, more than three times as many workers as the coal industry.
We cannot let attacks on science – and on the ability of the United States to benefit from scientific advances – go unchallenged.
And we won’t. On April 22, millions of people will March for Science in hundreds of cities all over the world. The March, say the scientists who are organizing it, is
“the first step of a global movement to defend the vital role science plays
in our health, safety, economies, and governments.”
I hope you’ll march, too. You can find your local march right here.
Join the #MarchforScience.
