‘Nerds’ take to the streets across US with a science lesson for Donald Trump

Washington: Thousands of scientists and their supporters, feeling increasingly threatened by the policies of US President Donald Trump, gathered on Saturday in Washington under rainy skies for what they called the March for Science, abandoning a tradition of keeping the sciences out of politics and calling on the public to stand up for scientific enterprise.

Demonstrators participate in the
March for Science in Washington.

The American protest followed similar demonstrations around the world at the weekend, with thousands taking to the streets in Sydney and Melbourne.

As the US marchers trekked shoulder-to-shoulder toward the Capitol, the street echoed with their calls:  "Who runs the world? Nerds," and "If you like beer, thank yeast and scientists!”

Some carried signs that showed rising oceans and polar bears in peril and faces of famous scientists like Mae Jamison, Rosalind Franklin and Marie Curie, and others touted a checklist of the diseases Americans no longer get thanks to vaccines.

Read Nicholas St Fleur’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “‘Nerds’ take to the streets across US with a science lesson for Donald Trump.”

Peter Doherty: why Australia needs to march for science

Peter Doherty.

(The following article is adapted from a speech to be delivered at the Melbourne March for Science on Saturday 22 April, 2017)

The mission posted on the March for Science international website states:

“The March for Science champions robustly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity. We unite as a diverse, nonpartisan group to call for science that upholds the common good and for political leaders and policy makers to enact evidence based policies in the public interest. The March for Science is a celebration of science.”

March for Science events will be held
across the world on April 22 2017.

To me, it seems the reason concerned people across the planet are marching today is that, at least for the major players in the English-speaking world, there are major threats to the global culture of science.

Why? A clear understanding of what is happening with, for example, the atmosphere, oceans and climate creates irreconcilable problems for powerful vested interests, particularly in the fossil fuel and coastal real estate sectors.

Read Peter Doherty’s story on The Conversation - “Peter Doherty: why Australia needs to march for science.”

How the Ancient Art of Rhetoric Can Help Defend Science

(This story was published the day before the “March for Science, but it is still relevant)

Science seems to be under attack in America, so much so that scientists and their supporters are marching in the streets.

Rhetoric is one of the seven
original liberal arts.

President Donald Trump has publicly called climate change a “Chinese hoax” abetted by greedy scientists. He has linked vaccines to autism despite overwhelming scientific consensus against these claims. Vice President Mike Pence has denied evolutionary science, the very foundation of modern biology. Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s pick for director of the Office of Management and Budget, has questioned the fully established link between Zika virus and microcephaly and wondered whether “we really need government-funded research at all.”

In response, scientists are taking a stand. They are defending their work against what appears to be a new, more aggressive assault in the so-called “Republican war on science,” as the president threatens deep cuts to federal funding of scientific research.

When they march for science, they will do well to consider insights from the field of study known as the “rhetoric of science.”

Read the Yes! Magazine story by Leah Ceccarelli - “How the Ancient Art of Rhetoric Can Help Defend Science.”

Public health advocate Simon Chapman says Academy of Science is ‘spineless’

Prominent public health advocate Simon Chapman has slammed the Australian Academy of Science, describing it as "spineless" for its refusal to endorse March for Science rallies in Australia.

Professor Simon Chapman says that
 the US could not be isolated from
the rest of the world. 

April 22 – World Earth Day – will see demonstrations in 53 countries, centred on Washington DC, in response to what many perceive as US President Donald Trump's attacks on science.

Since taking office in January, Mr Trump has ordered the removal of climate-change initiatives from the White House website and moved to stop scientific organisations, including NASA, from tracking the impacts of climate change.

In various posts to social media website Twitter, Mr Trump has vowed to dismantle the Paris climate accords and in 2012 he infamously stated that global warming was "created by and for the Chinese to make US manufacturing non-competitive”.

Read Marcus Storm’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Public health advocate Simon Chapman says Academy of Science is ‘spineless’."

Why scientists are fighting back. We’ve had enough of Trump’s war on facts

Next Saturday, in Washington, DC, and in hundreds of rallies around the world, scientists and their supporters will stage what is likely to be the largest gathering of its kind in history. The March for Science, an idea hatched by a few enthusiastic people on Reddit, has mobilised scientists and their supporters as never before.

As a colleague observed: “You know you’re in trouble when scientists take to the streets.” He’s right. I’ve worked closely with scientists for decades and, by training and temperament, they tend to be happiest in the lab, testing and retesting experiment results – among the last groups of people you might expect to find protesting.

Read Keith Kimmell’s story on The Guardian - “Why scientists are fighting back. We’ve had enough of Trump’s war on facts.”

(Victorian’s will have their chance to display their support for our scientists, and facts, through a march on Saturday, April 22, starting and Melbourne’s Swanston St State Library - more detail at March for Science).