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Scientists in the Streets


Feb 01, 2017
Researchers in the US are planning a march on Washington to highlight their concerns with the Trump administration's views on key scientific topics like climate change and evolution as well as with its actions, the Guardian reports.

In particular, they cite skepticism by elected officials regarding scientific facts as well as moves to prevent federal scientific agencies from sharing their work through social media and other blackouts, the Boston Globe adds.

"We were inspired (well, infuriated) by the current attacks on science from the new administration," march co-chair Caroline Weinberg tells the Washington Post in an email. "Slashing funding and restricting scientists from communicating their findings (from tax-funded research!) with the public is absurd and cannot be allowed to stand as policy."

The march has some 308,000 followers on Facebook and 302,000 on Twitter, and there are sister marches in other cities also in the works.

However, Western Carolina University's Robert Young writes in the New York Times that a scientists' march would be counterproductive. He argues that it would only further politicize science and alienate conservatives. Instead, he suggests that scientists take a tamer approach. Young adds that that the "solution here is not mass spectacle, but an increased effort to communicate directly with those who do not understand the degree to which the changing climate is already affecting their lives."

The March for Science is to take place April 22.

https://www.genomeweb.com/scan/scientists-streets