Five hundred cities around the world are staging demonstrations this weekend to promote awareness of and investments in science. The March For Science includes 12 cities in Ohio.
WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair reports that scientists are feeling the need to speak out.
Organizers of the march say it’s needed to counter the politicization of science – listing topics like climate change, evolution, and vaccine safety. Marchers are also pushing for the Trump administration to maintain research funding.
The president has promised steep cuts in research at the U.S. EPA, the Department of Agriculture and other agencies.
Patricia Princehouse teaches evolutionary biology at Case Western Reserve University and is one of the organizers of the Cleveland march. She says the benefits of basic research are well grounded.
“We as a country have a history of scientific development leading to technological development and to a better lifestyle for everyone, and we need to maintain that and augment that.”
Princehouse says federal research dollars have been in decline for years, and the Trump administration’s budget blueprint includes steep cuts in that funding, including an 18 percent cut to the National Institutes of Health.
She adds that "the EPA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which keeps our food safe - a whole bunch of these organizations and agencies are being cut by significant amounts.”
The Cleveland event is from 9 a.m. to noon at Public Square, with the march starting at 11 on Saturday. Demonstrations are also planned in Wooster, Youngstown, Mansfield, Columbus and seven other cities in Ohio.
