March for Science Planned for Washington, DC, and Across the Country
January 27, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
In just one week of power, Trump and Pence have launched a fascist blitzkrieg on federal agencies dealing with the environment and science in general. Media blackouts have been imposed on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and on the Interior, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services Departments. Climate change information was scrubbed from the White House website on day one. Even before the inauguration, Trump officials started a witchhunt in the Department of Energy, demanding the names of officials who participated in climate change talks. This week, the National Park Service (NPS) was banned from tweeting after their Twitter account retweeted images comparing Trump’s and Obama’s inauguration crowds. These are beginning moves to curtail and suppress scientific work and inquiry from being done, and from reaching the public.
Simultaneously, Trump and his fascist mouthpieces are engaging in a daily drumbeat to obliterate scientific reality itself and impose on society a phony Trumpworld universe of “alternative facts.” Trump and Pence are moving to, at the very least, eliminate major aspects of scientific work from being done, and to remake science into little more than a tool in the service of a vicious, fascist regime.
In response to Trump’s attacks on science and inspired by the Women’s March, scientists have come forward to organize a March for Science on Washington, D.C., and across the country. According to the Washington Post, the march sprang from conversations by scientists on Reddit. In less than a week, over a half million people have joined the march’s Facebook page, and its twitter account @ScienceMarchDC has 260,000 followers. The scientists march is planned for sometime in March. Satellite marches in other cities are also developing.
The March for Science on Washington webpage explains the purpose for the march:
Although this will start with a march, we hope to use this as a starting point to take a stand for science in politics. 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. This is a non-partisan issue that reaches far beyond people in the STEM* fields and should concern anyone who values empirical research and science.
There are certain things that we accept as facts with no alternatives. The Earth is becoming warmer due to human action. The diversity of life arose by evolution. Politicians who devalue expertise risk making decisions that do not reflect reality and must be held accountable. An American government that ignores science to pursue ideological agendas endangers the world.
As this is quickly gaining ground, rogue alternative governmental Twitter accounts for the EPA, NASA, the Center for Disease Control, Department of Interior, etc., have sprung up to counter the Trumpian assault on truth and continue to get out to the people scientific facts and knowledge on climate change and many other topics.
All this is very important, timely, and welcome resistance, and revcom.us will be reporting on this further.
*STEM-Science, Technology, Engineering and Math [back]
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