Thousands of protestors came together on Friday, March 7 to take a stand against sweeping cuts to scientific funding and attacks against scientific organizations by the Trump Administration.
Rallies organized by the grassroots organization “Stand Up for Science” took place in 32 cities across the US. A number of walkouts – where people literally walk out of their laboratory, classroom or office – were planned in conjunction with the protests and took place in Canada and Europe as well as in the US.
The main event was held in Washington DC, where speakers included popular scientists Bill Nye the Science Guy and Phil Plait the Bad Astronomer as well as renowned academics including climatologist Professor Michael E. Mann and Dr Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and leader of the National Genome Project. A number of politicians, including Senator Chris Van Hollen for Maryland, also came out to speak in support of the protests.
The protests follow a series of actions by the Trump Administration that serve to undermine scientific research while threatening the health and safety of Americans. The second Trump Administration has not yet been in power three months but within that short timeframe, billions of dollars of scientific funding has been frozen, restrictions have been placed on topics eligible for funding, and hundreds of federal employees – many of whom are involved in life-saving work – have been laid off as part of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) apparent cost-cutting mission.
Stand Up for Cancer is calling for an end to the censorship and political interference in science (but not the scientific involvement in policy) as well as protections for scientific funding and diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) programs.
“This is the most challenging moment I can recall for science itself,” Prof. Mann told protestors on Friday.
“Science is under siege,” he continued. “We’ve heard it here today already. The banning of federally funded research in my own field of climate science, the normalisation of anti-science in our government agencies and institutions, the NIA, NSF, EPA. These are among the most chilling developments.”
While as IFLScience has previously reported, international organizations have been slow to respond to the administration’s attacks against science, many individuals are now taking to the streets to show their anger at Trump’s anti-science agenda.
One protestor carried a sign saying, “Science research makes America great.”
Another sign read, “Is this a waste? My friend was illegally fired due to Musk’s gov cuts. Her job? Salmonella outbreaks!
A recent global survey found that despite concerns the COVID-19 pandemic and rise in misinformation may have led to science experiencing a public trust crisis, in fact trust in science remains high across most of the world.
