By Scott Etkin
Chants of “Cite your sources!” could be heard Saturday afternoon at the entrance to Central Park on W. 72nd Street, as protestors gathered for the annual March for Science. After a series of speeches, the group crossed Central Park West and began the walk downtown to Bryant Park, escorted by NYPD officers.
The March for Science is a nonprofit that organizes events around the world in support of the public’s open access to scientific information, the use of science for the common good, and the protection of human and environmental rights.
Taking place on the day after Earth Day, the speeches focused mostly on climate justice and the need to respond with urgency to the climate crisis. For example, this year’s report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledged the danger to ecosystems and humans in the near term unless there are significant reductions in fossil fuel emissions in the next few years.
On its website, the March for Science calls for New York City to: “end the expansion and future construction of fossil fuel infrastructure,” “accomplish its climate goals without opening any new jails,” and “invest in communities by supporting city infrastructure and green spaces.”
The activist Saad Amer, co-founder of the organization Plus1Vote, spoke about the importance of voting in this year’s midterm elections for leaders who will act on ensuring a “livable future” – instead of making empty promises.
The March for Science movement began in 2017 in response to the Trump administration. Speakers today emphasized the need to stand up for science no matter who is in office.
“Science is political, not partisan,” said Alyssa Shearer, a biomedical researcher at Columbia University and co-director of programming for NYC’s March for Science. She said that politics influence the direction of science and how it drives policy, but “every party can promote science.”
For the past two years, NYC’s March for Science was held as a virtual event due to the pandemic. This year, it was a sunny day for a protest outdoors. They chanted: “This is what democracy looks like!”
Science when defined as identification of the physics behind the characteristic properties of some entity is fact. Science when defined as theoretical hypotheses of the physics behind the characteristic properties of some entity is speculative.
Established scientific fact should be beyond debate. The earth is roughly a sphere and not flat.
Quantum theory, string theory and many other aspects of science are far from settled.
Your post makes absolutely no sense. Science is about developing the best explanation for natural phenomena, grounded in physical evidence. Science becomes “settled” when it becomes clear that there is only a single reasonable explanation. But even then, there is always the possibility that new evidence will unsettle it.
Science is defined as: Knowledge attained through study or practice. Contrary to your comment, true scientific theory is not far from settled because it requires an immense amount of evidence to be elevated to the status of theory. Reminds me of when a county in Texas put labels on textbooks stating that “Evolution is only a theory,” because the school board, sadly, did not actually understand the meaning of ‘scientific theory. ‘The next step, Law, is very hard to reach because it requires complete and total understanding of the precursors, causes, effects, mechanics, and outcomes.
Say what?
(Comment #2, above, was intended as a reply to Quiller @ #1.)
“end the expansion and future construction of fossil fuel infrastructure,” “accomplish its climate goals without opening any new jails,”
…the tone deafness is astounding. We are in the middle of the first major European invasion in 80 years where Russia has been empowered precisely because of the west’s utter failure to establish proper energy infrastructure. And what do new jails have to do with climate change? That’s not science lol.
Let me guess, anti-nuclear too?
Saying science shouldn’t be political, and then demanding no new jails as part of one’s climate change policy is a contradiction.
I completely agree. As a lifelong Democrat (though a more moderate one), I am horrified at how bad at messaging we are, particularly the more progressive end of the party.
They take a reasonable message and ruin it by including something completely unrelated that is a much more debatable topic. What do jails have to do with this?
Republicans are great at staying on message (no matter how horrible it is), shaping the narrative, and putting it in a way that convinces many who are on the fence to agree with them.
Democrats, especially progressives, assume that everyone lives in their echo chamber and feed the Republican trolls with great talking points to rally their troops.
This is an endless refrain from Leon: “I’m a Democrat but why can’t these Democrats be more moderate, like me?”
This was a protest March. The people involved are progressives, but they are not claiming to be speaking for the Democratic Party. many of them might not even be Democrats or believe in the effectiveness of electoral politics.
Protest politics has a long history in the US of raising issues that the general electorate is not ready for. See, for example, the abolitionist movement, or the gay liberation movement.
Ending mass incarceration is an important cause. This was the appropriate way to educate on this issue.
@Meri please read more carefully. We said Science IS political, NOT partisan. No contradiction.
Ummm, saying science is not partisan but then demanding no new jails is a contradiction.
Quantum theory is completely established. Every experiment ever done verified the theory, and it is the basis for many devices that every one of us owns.
The sun’s magnetic field is pulling all of the planets closer to it, thus increasing planets’ temperature: I.e global warming. Man made pollution certainly doesn’t help for the longevity of our species and the species on earth but the Sun’s inevitable slow pull is something marching won’t solve. Cheers!
Get the facts straight.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansion_of_the_universe
The expansion of the universe does not affect the relative position of astronomical bodies within galaxies
The earth distance to the sun is not affected by the expansion of the universe.
Nor does the Sun’s magnetic field affect Earth’s orbit. If it were, Earth would be flipped upside down and swung around the Sun (perpendicular to our orbit) when the Sun’s magnetic field flips every 11 years. But hey, now that would be a roller coaster!
I hope you’re joking because that’s complete nonsense.
Cite your sources! Actually the Earth is very slowly moving away from the Sun.
V.N., since it is good form to do the sam, here is one in fairly plain English that my middle school students were able to understand and work with:
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/41-our-solar-system/the-earth/orbit/83-is-the-distance-from-the-earth-to-the-sun-changing-advanced
Sources, please?
Touché!
NYC will never be carbon Neutral, unless all buildings older then 2020 are razed to the ground. There is no way for buildings to get rid of gas stoves as the amps for an electric stove added to breaker would be more then current 60-80 amp service can handle in each apartment.
John, when most apartments that have 60-80 amp service do any renovations, one of the most common upgrades is upgrading the electrical service. While this can get expensive for high floor apartments (cost is per foot of wire which runs from the basement), it is increasingly necessary for reasons beyond just electric stoves. AC loads alone can necessitate upgrades because many apartments cant run all of their ACs at the same time as a hair dryer, toaster, and fridge.