The second “March for Science” is happening across the globe on Saturday. Last year’s edition drew out some 1.1 million scientists, students, and other supporters of evidence-based policy making. Organizers are expecting a much smaller turnout today, but events in support of the march are taking place all over the world.

Let’s start from the bottom—in Antartica:

Message of support from Antarctica: overwinterer at the Neumayer Station support the #MarchForScience @ScienceMarchDC pic.twitter.com/ISrptu1Gfi — AWI Media (@AWI_Media) April 14, 2018

Mother Jones‘s Jeremy Schulman is on the ground at the main rally in Washington, DC, where he’s already spotted some noteworthy protest signs.

This is Samantha Swamy, who says “science needs to be a higher priority on the government agenda” #MarchForScience pic.twitter.com/CuTm6UYChQ — Jeremy Schulman (@jeremyschulman) April 14, 2018

You can watch a live stream of the rally below:</s>The March for Science returned on 14 April for its second year, with marches and rallies planned for 200 cities worldwide. Last year’s march was one of the largest public displays of support for science, drawing 1.3 million people around the globe to rallies in more than 450 cities.

David Kanter, an organiser of the march in New York, says the theme of the day is the intersection of science and education. “We really want to focus on the power of science and scientific training to empower young people, to empower communities that have often been underrepresented in society and in science,” he says. “The theme for all the marches this year is accountability, making sure that all of our elected officials are held accountable in terms of being able to respect science.”

On the morning of 14 April in Washington Square Park in New York, a small crowd began to gather under a cloudless sky. Some, like mechanical engineer Patrick Landry, had attended marches and rallies last year. He came out because “carbon emissions keep going up, we need to send a message to our administration and the world that we need to find a solution,” he said.

Other marchers, like Liz Ndoye, a retired teacher from Hoboken, did not attend last year but felt that current events made this year’s march particularly important. “I’m terrified to live in a time when our leaders say science is fake news or a conspiracy. Marches make everyone aware there are people concerned about, for example, the EPA rolling back regulations,” Ndoye said.

10-year-old Dakota Shanley, whose stepmother Susan Perkins was a speaker, said she thinks kids should have more science classes in school. Shanley said that she hasn’t had a unit on science yet this year. “If we get rid of science, we’re on the verge of losing so much information about Earth and space,” she said. “The result of not enough science is people think the earth is flat, and we need to stop that.”

At the back of the rally area, music, hands-on science demonstrations, and scientific posters lent a feeling halfway between a street fair and a scientific conference. Even a few of the police officers patrolling the area were drawn in by a booth about the ecology of Washington Square Park.

As the speakers began, an upbeat crowd of a few hundred people gathered to listen. Andrew Hamilton, president of New York University, kicked off the event with a rousing speech that felt almost sermon-like. “The sun shines on the righteous, and the cause of science is righteous,” he said. He encouraged people to continue fighting for science beyond just making sure that federal funding remains intact.

New York Congressperson Carol Maloney followed with a speech on policy. “We need more science in policymaking,” she said. “You will never find a better investment for public funds than scientific research: it is what has made our country great.”

While last year’s marches were heavily focused on larger policy issues, many of this year’s events have shifted to be more local. Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president, emphasized this shift, speaking about local initiatives in the city such as new composting efforts. “You save the world from the neighborhood up,” she said.

After several more speeches about science-based policy, human rights, and the environment, the gathered crowd began to march down Broadway. Chants of “What do we want? Peer review! When do we want it? Now!” and “Hey hey! Ho ho! We won’t let our planet go!” echoed off the buildings. According to a volunteer organizer, the march almost doubled in size along the way as bystanders joined from the sidewalk.

New York City hosted just one of hundreds of demonstrations. People around the world gathered for marches in support of science:</s>The capitol grounds in Salem and Olympia will offer a colorful juxtaposition of political movements Saturday. Marches for Science are scheduled in 10 Northwest cities. These roughly coincide with separate pro-gun rallies at the state capitals..



The Salem version of the March for Science is scheduled for the exact same time as a gun rights rally titled Good Guys With Guns or Americans For America, depending who you ask. The event permits place the rallies about a block apart. The science marchers have the north steps of the Capitol and the pro-gun supporters are invited to converge on the World War II Memorial area.

In Olympia, the same two movements have both reserved the Capitol steps to rally, but are separated by about four hours in time.

The March for Science is officially non-partisan but it grows out of opposition to Trump administration stances on climate change, research funding cuts and alleged muzzling of government scientists.

This is the second year for the March for Science. The main march takes place in Washington, D.C., with satellite events across the country and globe including in Seattle, Portland, Astoria, Spokane, Medford, Bend and Victoria, BC.

The gun rights rallies arise in response to student-led gun control marches last month that followed the Parkland, Florida, school shooting. RSVPs on Facebook indicate some gun rally participants plan to exercise their right to openly carry their firearms, which organizers are urging be unloaded.

The Second Amendment activism stems in part from a national campaign to stage rallies at all 50 state capitols on Saturday. A group called the National Constitutional Coalition of Patriotic Americans drummed up interest in rallying, mostly using social media.

In Salem, the park manager for State Capitol State Park anticipated no problem handling two simultaneous rallies expected to draw hundreds of people each.

"We've had 5,000 to 6,000 thousand people with plenty of room to spare before," Kevin Strandberg said Friday.</s>PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – People across the world marched and rallied in the name of science Saturday.

The largest “March for Science” took place in Washington, D.C.

Former NFL Player Attends ‘Be The Match’ To Support National Bone Marrow Registry

Boston was another of the more than 200 cities around the globe that held rallies.

Participants called for policymakers to consult with experts before making decisions, and to enact evidence-based policies that serve all communities.</s>What started as a march is turning into a movement. This year’s March for Science will involve rallies on 14 April in more than 200 cities, as a sequel to last year’s inaugural march in protest of president Donald Trump and his administration’s anti-science rhetoric. This time around, the day of protest aims to be more than just crowds of people wielding witty signs – though those will likely still be in high supply.

“The theme of the march last year has hardened and endured into this year,” says David Kanter, co-organiser of the New York City march. “Given that last year it was the early months of the Trump administration, there was more anxiety there. But the ultimate goals of building a community of science advocates and influencing policy with science are still the driving forces.”

In Washington, DC, crowds will descend on the National Mall for a morning of talks and performances before the march. Cities around the world have adapted the March for Science to their own communities, including seminars to encourage more scientific activism. Marches in other places, including New York City and London, will also promote voter registration efforts.

“We’re hoping people come away from the march knowing more about organisations in their own backyard,” says Jillian Sequeira, a coordinator of the London March for Science. For the New York organisers, the focus is on influencing local and national politics. “Our driving concern is making sure that the work of scientists is used in decision-making to make smart policy,” says Kanter.

An estimated 1.3 million people attended about 450 March for Science rallies around the globe last year. A survey of 20,000 of those marchers conducted by Edward Maibach and Teresa Myers at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, found that 27 per cent were scientists, and 25 per cent worked in a science-affiliated job, while students comprised 8 per cent of marchers. A quarter of the marchers said they don’t work in a scientific field, but care about science. The attendees were highly educated, with 63 per cent holding a graduate or professional degree, and an additional 27 per cent had a Bachelor’s degree.

Estimates for this year’s turnout are lower than last year – from a few hundred in London to between 5 and 10 thousand in New York City, according to organisers.

The march goes on

Since the 2017 march, more scientists than ever have run for political office, Kanter says. There has also been a shift in science funding in the US. Trump’s draconian budget request – which suggested drastic cuts to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), among others – was rejected by Congress, and a spending bill that increases funding for science at many federal agencies was signed into law.

“I would attribute a lot of the holding the line on science funding on sustained activism from scientists and their supporters,” says Michael Halpern at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts. But he says that budgets don’t tell the whole story – there’s still a lot to march for.

“They’re marching because they see EPA administrator Scott Pruitt go against his scientific advisers and fail to ban chemicals shown to cause damage to children’s brains. They’re seeing people at the Department of the Interior kicked out of their jobs [working] on climate change. They’re seeing scientists at the CDC being told they can’t use words like ‘evidence based’ and ‘transgender’ and ‘fetus’ in describing their work,” he says.

Kanter agrees that there’s still reason to take to the streets. “There are science posts in the government not being filled, or being filled by inadequately trained people. The reason we’re still marching is that the goal of the march – use of evidence in policy-making – still isn’t being fulfilled in our politics today.”

Read more: Science fans have many reasons to take to the streets again</s>On Saturday scientists and science enthusiasts are gathering in South Bend for the 2018 March for Science.

Last year the March for Science in South Bend drew a crowd of more than a thousand. Far higher than the couple hundred organizers expected.

Robert Stanley is the chair of March for Science South Bend. He said they are expecting fewer people this year because the momentum is down with other protests and issues drawing people’s focus.

Stanley said science relates to a lot of those other issues.

“Whether it be the necessity of studying gun violence in order to reduce it or the ability to develop the science to decrease the time to process rape kits. There are so many connections that we have and we’ve seen increased engagement when we’re able to communicate with these other groups.”

The march starts in Leeper Park at 2 p.m. Marchers will follow Michigan Avenue to Jon R. Hunt Plaza in front of the Morris Performing Arts Center where there will be speakers, ask a scientist booths and kid-friendly science activities.</s>Marchers are turning out again to support science. On Saturday, people around the world will take to the streets for the second “March for Science.” The event highlights the importance of evidence-based policymaking and in Seattle, will feature speeches from House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. Stacy Smedley, a coordinator of the Seattle march, says this year’s marches may be even more important than last year’s, when rally-goers worried about how science could be pushed aside under the Trump administration.

“I think what’s happened over the past year is, we’ve seen that kind of play out. We’ve seen that start to happen in the EPA and other places with proposals to reduce research funding, all sorts of different avenues when it comes to legislation.”

Smedley adds however, that it isn’t a partisan march and says the goal is to bring together as many diverse voices as possible. The Seattle event begins at 10 A-M at Cal Anderson Park. There will also be marches in Olympia and Spokane.

The theme of the Seattle march is “Science’s Silenced Voices.” T-J Greene is a former chairman of the Makah Tribal Council and a current trustee of The Nature Conservancy of Washington, one of the sponsors of the march. Greene will speak Saturday about the importance of indigenous knowledge. He says the western science approach could benefit from a more holistic view of the world.

“I think what’s missing, but I see it being done a lot more often is – and this is throughout most every indigenous culture – a way of viewing our environment and the world around us as being connected – you know, everything.”

Mary Ruckelshaus is a scientist and a member of The Nature Conservancy’s science advisory board. She says it’s an important time to stand up for science.

“Being an activist for what you believe in has obviously come to the fore, more recently. So yeah, I think this is something that maybe too many people take for granted – that science affects everything in our lives, and I really feel like it’s important to remind people of that.”</s>That's what many in Terre Haute did on Saturday.

A rally kicked off the beginning of the day, with speakers from many organizations around the Wabash Valley.

The public was then invited to participate in a march.

The march began at the fountain on the Indiana State University campus, and went through downtown Terre Haute.

One event organizer says it's all about having a passion for science.

"Science is a big part of my life. I have a passion for it, and that's one of those things that we're trying to express to the public, that science is so important," said Denise Marie Sobieski, leader of Wabash Valley March for Science.

Participants made signs and held them during the march.

Afterwards they could gather to learn more about science.</s>People cheered and clapped and stretched on tiptoes Saturday along the route of the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade, holding phones over the crowd to snap photos of motorcycles rumbling slowly along Constitution Avenue. Toddlers on parents’ shoulders pointed as white, brown and black horses clip-clopped by.

Just south of that, people wandered under cherry trees to get to white tents to hear talks sponsored by the second annual March for Science.

Amy Gonzalez, a scientist, came with her family from their home in Bethesda to show their support. “I want to make sure that science is recognized publicly in this country,” she said, “and for my children to recognize that, as well.”

Her son Tomas Gonzalez, who’s 8, showed the signs he had drawn. They had been printed with the prompt, “I fight climate change for” and he wrote in “animals” on one, and “the sea” on another, drawing a whale and jellyfish on it. He had just learned about this in a program for children at the event, said his father, Francisco Gonzalez, a professor at Johns Hopkins University. “The oceans become more acidic with more CO2 in the atmosphere — what does that do to the animals?” he asked.

“Kills,” Tomas answered, then pointed with a surprised shout — an enormous float was bobbing past in the Cherry Blossom Parade.

His older brother Francisco Gonzalez showed a bracelet they had each made at the science event, with beads sensitive to UV rays.

“If it turns red, you get in the shade,” Tomas said. They looked up at the sun shining overhead — almost no shade, except for a few patches under cherry blossoms.

Teenagers whizzed by on unicycles, waving to the crowd. A band marching in the Cherry Blossom Parade rattled and thundered past, silver tubas shining in the sun. A giant butterfly balloon wafted past, to cheers. People slapped hands with performing skateboarders. Thirty-four people stood in line for ice cream cones.

A man holding a hand-painted sign that read, “Protect our oceans — ban single-use plastics” and wearing a tank top with a bee cartoon and the slogan, “If we die, we’re taking you with us,” craned his neck to see the parade.

A woman climbed onto a wooden barricade to snap photos of people tottering by on stilts.

Behind her, Chloe Ngo took photos of her daughter under the cherry blossoms, the shutter of her camera clicking steadily as 5-year-old Celine Ngo smiled in a red kimono.

Chloe Ngo pushed her pink sunglasses back and explained that her kimono had fall colors and her daughter’s represented spring. They came from Falls Church for the parade — and for the Japanese food at a festival downtown.

A woman carried a sign with an arrow pointing toward a drawing of the Earth and the words, “I’m with her.”

June Song, a scientist, sat in the grass with her 5-year-old daughter, Mila Song. They had been to the kids’ tent and were taking a break before the March for Science, Mila squeezing the last drops of chocolate milk from her box. Her mother had made a bright green sign: “The Earth is round! And climate change is real!”

“The deniers — it’s hard to understand where they’re coming from,” she said, and hard to believe why they don’t believe the data. Scientists are so skeptical and spend so long on research before drawing any conclusion, she said. Maybe people feel it won’t happen for a long time and so they don’t want to make sacrifices, she said, but there are future generations to think of. “Spreading awareness is my main objective,” she said.

Mila had drawn the Earth on a pink sign, and written: “Do not throw trash in the ground and do not kill animals and do not kill people and do not kill chickens and don’t eat them. Do not ruin our Earth it’s everybody’s home!! Respect Mother Nature.”

Organizers of the March for Science — a demonstration that will include presentations from scientists, technologists and researchers — are not trying to replicate the feverish feel of last year’s protest. They can’t.

Instead, organizers said, they’re focused on keeping science and research top of mind for local and federal policymakers and showing the world that people still care — even if they don’t make the trek to Washington.

“The conversation around these marches is so often about the optics,” said Caroline Weinberg, interim director of the March for Science. “People wanting to know, ‘Is the crowd as big as last year?’ When the truth is, it doesn’t have to be the same. It can’t be all about D.C., and it can’t be all about Election Day or march day. A huge part of our focus is making sure people continue to be empowered to create change throughout the year and all around the country.”

As a result, the group has downplayed the importance of the rally in the District and put greater effort into regional marches, which will emphasize local issues and policies. Nearly 250 rallies have been planned this year in cities across the country and the world.

[What’s changed since the March for Science? Readers respond.]

The March for Science began as an idea that germinated online following the first Women’s March on Washington, held the day after President Trump’s inauguration. It caught on fast, with several mainstream science groups jumping on board and promising a nonpartisan event.

As thousands of people convened in Washington on April 22, 2017, other marches emerged in more than 600 cities across six continents. A handful of scientists on the seventh, Antarctica, participated from afar through social media.

They were moved by fears that facts, science and research were in jeopardy in public policy and because of proposed sweeping funding cuts in state and federal budgets.

Though the issues have remained largely unchanged, Weinberg said, turnout this year is expected to be much smaller. About 5,000 people are expected to attend the D.C. march on Saturday, according to a permit issued this week by the National Park Service.

Weinberg said the march will remain nonpartisan and participants will hold members of both political parties accountable for their positions on science-related issues.

[How to get around the Cherry Blossom Festival and Emancipation Day parades this weekend]

Later Saturday afternoon, the District’s Emancipation Day celebrations is scheduled to begin with a parade from 2 to 3 p.m. along Pennsylvania Avenue, between 10th and 14th streets NW, followed by a concert and fireworks.

At the March for Science, organizers are setting up photo booths and tents around the Washington Monument to allow scientists and researchers to give interactive presentations on a variety of subjects that organizers are calling “teach-ins.”

The main rally will convene about 12:30 p.m. Speakers include scholars, scientists and technocrats, among them Vinton Cerf, who has been called the father of the Internet and Google’s chief Internet evangelist, and Rush D. Holt, a scientist and former Democratic congressman representing New Jersey.

The finale is reserved for 10-year-old Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny, known as “Little Miss Flint” for a pageant she won years ago and her subsequent activism around her home town’s water crisis, including her encouragement of President Barack Obama to visit Flint, Mich., in 2016.

The main stage will be set up near 17th Street and Independence Avenue. Then, at 3:30 p.m., they march.

Part of the March for Science’s evolution over the past year has included transforming from a group assembled to put on an event into a registered nonprofit with a broader scope and mission: to support science and research policy through campaigns, outreach and, yes, marches.

The group also helps circulate petitions and instruct members in how to contact their elected representatives.

While satellite events have been planned this year to carry the message of the March for Science beyond Washington, they’re not all going to be marches.

Some cities are planning lectures by prominent local scientists. Others will hold letter-writing campaigns on science-related issues.

Several, including Saturday events planned in Mobile, Ala., and San Diego, will feature something less like a protest than a science fair, with nonprofits, universities and local businesses in the science and tech fields showing off their work.

“Last year, everyone was scrambling. There was all this energy that needed to get out, so we put on an event that was relatively organized and let people be heard, and that was good enough,” said Navid Zohoury, who is helping to lead the March for Science in San Diego.

“Attendance this year will be smaller, and we’re okay with that. The success will be in putting on an event that people feel is relevant and important. It’s more about sustaining and evolving a movement.”</s>Back in high school, there were the super-smart kids who were into science... and then there were the rest of us who dreaded the baffling formulas, the nauseating frog dissecting, and the dreaded eye-wash station. Had we known we’d end up living in some bizarro universe where a growing chunk of the population and our own leaders are denying science exists, though, maybe we’d have tried a little harder.

While it may be too late for AP Physics, you can actually still do something important and meaningful in the name of science, like getting involved with the LA Alliance for Science, starting with this weekend’s March for Science. One of 230 marches taking place around the world this Saturday, the idea behind LA's second annual March for Science is to counteract the budget cuts, science-related department closures, and those ever-increasing “alternative facts” that are silencing science these days. Here’s what you need to know about participating in the march and supporting the cause.
A second March for Science is held with various rallies happening internationally.