Science March

Newsletter – The People’s Plan For Transformation

April 22, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter climate crisis, Education, Finance and the Economy, Health Care, Immigrant Rights, National Improved Medicare for All, Net Neutrality, Powell Memo, Science March, Student Debt, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. It is important to understand that we arrived in this situation by, what Moyers described as "careful long-range planning and implementation…consistency of action over an indefinite period of years..." By understanding this plan, we can realize that we can design a way out of it. This includes seeing through the propaganda and exposing the truth; not allowing ourselves to be divided into issue-based silos or taken off track by the agenda of a plutocratic political party; and organizing not just to resist, but more importantly to demand the changes we require in our communities and on the planet. Popular Resistance is one of the conveners of The People's Congress of Resistance, a grassroots effort to build resistance and collaboration in our communities to solve the crises at hand and create a better world. One of the purposes of the conference will be to plan the future of the resistance movement and determine how we can work together more effectively. It's time for the people to create a plan for the transformation we need.

The March For Science On Earth Day, Explained

April 22, 2017 Brian Resnick, www.vox.com Resist! Earth Day, Science March

By Brian Resnick for Vox - At the very least, the Science March will be a celebration of the scientific method and its ability to inform policy. With Trump in the Oval Office, scientists have been losing seats at the policy-making tables. The hope is that the march will leave an impression: Science matters. Already Trump is calling for a dramatic reduction in the amount of money the US government spends on scientific research, he’s scaling back efforts at the Environmental Protection Agency to combat climate change, and overall, he seems to disregard or not seek out advice from scientific efforts. He has yet to name a top White House science adviser, and it’s unclear if he ever will. Meanwhile, science skeptics in Congress are emboldened. The House recently passed two bills that (under the guise of transparency) would stifle scientific research and expertise at the EPA. It’s the gravity of these concerns that helped the March attract support from the scientific mainstream: Major science advocacy groups and publishers, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, the Association for Psychological Science, and many others, have endorsed the march and are encouraging their members to attend.

Drug Policy Researchers And Allies Join National March For Science

April 19, 2017 Jules Netherland and Sheila Vakharia, www.alternet.org Resist! Protests, Science, Science March

By Jules Netherland and Sheila Vakharia for AlterNet - American drug policies have a problem—they’ve been driven by fear rather than facts for over a century. Although there had been notable gains over the past eight years towards more evidence-based drug policy, many worry that we may be heading in the wrong direction under the Trump administration. That’s why on April 22nd, drug policy researchers and advocates are taking to the streets of D.C. for the national March for Science, wielding facts and compassion in the face of ignorance and hatred. From the first opium laws in the 1800’s targeting Chinese immigrants to the crack laws of the 1980’s which disproportionately criminalized and incarcerated black men, the history of drug policy in the US illustrates how racism, xenophobia, and stigma can be weaponized in the name of “public health” and “safety.” Paradoxically, the evidence suggests that drug prohibition has actually contributed to poorer health outcomes and higher mortality rates among drug users, while also facilitating the growth of an illicit drug market which threatens the safety and well-being of people around the globe. In addition, targeting racial and ethnic minority groups for harsher penalties has had a ripple effect on individual users and their communities by depriving them of social and familial supports as well as economic opportunity.

To March For Science, DC And Satellite Marches Across The Nation And The World

April 18, 2017 Staff, www.sites.google.com Organize! March, Science, Science March

By Staff of Let Our Indigenous Voices Be Heard - As original peoples, we have long memories, centuries old wisdom and deep knowledge of this land and the importance of empirical, scientific inquiry as fundamental to the well-being of people and planet. Let us remember that long before Western science came to these shores, there were Indigenous scientists here. Native astronomers, agronomists, geneticists, ecologists, engineers, botanists, zoologists, watershed hydrologists, pharmacologists, physicians and more—all engaged in the creation and application of knowledge which promoted the flourishing of both human societies and the beings with whom we share the planet. We give gratitude for all their contributions to knowledge. Native science supported indigenous culture, governance and decision making for a sustainable future –the same needs which bring us together today. As we endorse and support the March for Science, let us acknowledge that there are multiple ways of knowing that play an essential role in advancing knowledge for the health of all life. Science, as concept and process, is translatable into over 500 different Indigenous languages in the U.S. and thousands world-wide.

Should Scientists Engage In Activism?

March 26, 2017 Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus, www.theconversation.com Strategize! Activism, Ethics, Science, Science March

By Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus for The Conversation. Have you heard that scientists are planning a march on Washington? The move is not being billed as a protest, but rather as a “celebration of our passion for science and a call to support and safeguard the scientific community,” although it comes as a direct response to recent policy changes and statements by the Trump administration. Not everyone thinks the nonprotest protest is a good thing. It’s “a terrible idea,” wrote Robert Young, a geologist at Western Carolina University, in The New York Times. The march, Young said, will just reinforce a belief among some conservatives that “scientists are an interest group,” and polarize the issue, making researchers’ jobs more difficult. Others find that argument less than convincing, pointing out that science and politics have always been intertwined.

Marches For Science, On One Global Interactive Map

February 12, 2017 Lindzi Wessel, www.sciencemag.org Resist! Science, Science March

By Lindzi Wessel for Science. It was a tweet that brought them together. “Hell hath no fury like a scientist silenced,” Caroline Weinberg, a public health educator and science writer in New York City, tweeted late last month. As a result of worries about the impact that President Donald Trump’s administration might have on scientists, Weinberg’s tweet also floated the idea of a “science march” to highlight the importance of research. Someone suggested she contact Jonathan Berman, a like-minded postdoctoral fellow studying hypertension at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, who had already set up a Twitter handle: @ScienceMarchDC. A few retweets later, “things just blew up,” Weinberg says. Within days, the science march account had more than 300,000 followers and a “secret” Facebook group had more than 800,000 members.

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