--- title: Science March: Why Scientists Are Joining the Protest description: The March for Science takes place on Earth Day, April 22. Scientists will march for issues like climate and funding. canonical: https://time.com/4749221/science-march-scientists-partisan/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-21T18:08:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:48.478Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Scientists Are Joining the March for Science og:description: Despite a typical aversion to politics. og:url: https://time.com/4749221/science-march-scientists-partisan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6bd8856d6c21ca9f/6988c40b8e06012ca746a102/science-march.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: Protesters line Central Park West during the Earth Day 'March For Science NYC' demonstration to coincide with similar marches globally in Manhattan, New York, U.S. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Scientists Are Joining the March for Science twitter:description: Despite a typical aversion to politics. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6bd8856d6c21ca9f/6988c40b8e06012ca746a102/science-march.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Scientists Are Joining the March for Science > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Meet the Scientists Running for Office [Watch (HLS stream): Meet the Scientists Running for Office](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Li60SNgy.m3u8) (2:49)  _Published 2017-04-22. Meet the scientists who are running for office and hoping to bring science back to Congress._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) and [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/) Apr 21, 2017 6:08 PM UTC  Protesters line Central Park West during the Earth Day 'March For Science NYC' demonstration to coincide with similar marches globally in Manhattan, New York, U.S., April 22, 2017. Protesters line Central Park West during the Earth Day 'March For Science NYC' demonstration to coincide with similar marches globally in Manhattan, New York, U.S., April 22, 2017. Andrew Kelly—Reuters by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) and [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/) Apr 21, 2017 6:08 PM UTC Traditionally, scientists shirk political debate, preferring to stay out of the partisan fray. But in the months since the 2016 election, many in the scientific community have been vocal about their concerns that the Trump Administration is making decisions and budgetary recommendations that could imperil their work. For instance, a $5.8 billion proposed cut to the National Institutes of Health budget, which funds scientific research in the U.S. Now, thousands of scientists and their supporters are expected to join the [March for Science](https://www.marchforscience.com/) in Washington, D.C., and hundreds more are expected at satellite events around the country including New York City, Chicago, Birmingham, Alabama and more. “Scientists are often reticent to go public,” Rush Holt, a former member of Congress and CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science said in a Wednesday press conference about the march. “In this case, the level of anxiety about the state of science, it’s place in our society and in our government, and whether the conditions under which it can thrive are being adequately maintained and defended, has led people to go into the public square in what appear to be unusually large numbers and unusually great enthusiasm.” The main march in Washington will feature speakers including Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician who blew the whistle on the water crisis in Flint, Mich., science educator [Bill Nye,](https://www.marchforscience.com/press/2017/3/30/mfs-announces-honorary-national-co-chairs) as well as hosts and performers like Questlove from the Roots. The event begins with a rally at 9 a.m. Eastern followed by the march. Organizers expect more than 500 other marches to take place around the world. Many prominent science groups have endorsed the march, including AAAS, the American Chemical Society and the American Geophysical Union. The leading scientific journal [_Nature_](https://www.nature.com/news/nature-supports-the-march-for-science-1.21804) also recently published a [supportive editorial](http://time.com/4736798/march-science-nature-editorial/), writing, “We encourage readers to get involved, to show solidarity and to speak out about the importance of research and evidence.” **MORE:** [_3 Easy Ways to Make a Difference on Earth Day_](http://time.com/4748331/earth-day-2017-what-you-can-do/) Through March for Science organizers have framed the march as a “celebration of science” and a nonpartisan opportunity to defend the role science plays in the global community, the organizers acknowledge that the march is spurring debate over the role of politics in science. “The march has generated a great deal of conversation around whether or not scientists should involve themselves in politics,” [the group writes](https://www.marchforscience.com/mission/). “In the face of an alarming trend toward discrediting scientific consensus and restricting scientific discovery, we might ask instead: can we afford not to speak out in its defense?” The reasons for marching vary among scientists and other participants, from concerns about the future of the Environmental Protection Agency amid [a 31% proposed budget cut](http://time.com/4703569/trump-budget-epa-climate-change/), to potentially fewer funding opportunities from the National Institutes of Health, to the Trump Administration’s position on climate change, and more. President Trump’s [proposed 18% budget cut to the NIH](https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/budget/fy2018/2018%5Fblueprint.pdf) is top of mind for many scientists participating in the march. Carol Greider, a professor of molecular biology at Johns Hopkins University and a Nobel Laureate in Medicine said during the AAAS press conference that a nearly 20% cut to the NIH budget will mean no new grants for young scientists: “Without the support of the NIH, we will lose this next generation of scientists and the next wave of breakthroughs and therapies.” [Bryan Jones](http://medicine.utah.edu/faculty/mddetail.php?facultyID=u0060967), a retinal neuroscientist at the Moran Eye Center at University of Utah School of Medicine traveled to D.C. to march with fellow vision scientists on Saturday to speak out against the NIH budget proposal. “If that cut goes into effect, it will devastating,” says Jones. “We are already seeing labs shutting down. Blindness research, Alzheimer’s research, Parkinson’s research, cancer research, diabetes research—all of this is funded through the NIH.” Climate scientists will also be showing up to the march citing concerns about the proposed 31% [budget cut to the EPA](http://time.com/4688753/donald-trump-epa-budget-cuts-public-health/), including complete defunding of many climate programs, including former President Obama’s [Clean Power Plan](http://time.com/3981535/white-house-clean-power-plan/), which would require states to implement plans to transition away from coal-fired power plants. Even without those cuts, which many policy experts expect Congress will not approve, climate scientists worry their work will fall on deaf ears or worse that the government will try to block them from discussing their findings. “There’s definitely reason to be quite alarmed that the direction government research will go away from documenting climate change,” says Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a partner in the March for Science. “If government scientists aren’t free to speak about their work we risk further exacerbating the declining public trust.” Rachael Bonoan, a biology Ph.D. candidate at Tufts University, says she hopes the march will make scientists more visible and relatable to the public. “Science tends to be viewed as an exclusive club for the geeks, the nerds, the people who are smart enough, but that view just isn’t the whole truth,” she says. “A child asking questions about the world is science, baking a cake is science. I see an opportunity to expand the public’s perception.” Bonoan will be giving a lecture on honey bees at a museum in Massachusetts during the march, but will be wearing a March for Science t-shirt in solidarity. Some scientists will sit out the march, arguing it will be counter-productive. “A march by scientists, while well intentioned, will serve only to trivialize and politicize the science we care so much about, turn scientists into another group caught up in the culture wars and further drive the wedge between scientists and a certain segment of the American electorate,” wrote [Robert S. Young](https://psds.wcu.edu/about/psds-staff/robert-s-young-director/), a professor of coastal geology at Western Carolina University [in a January New York _Times_ editorial](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/opinion/a-scientists-march-on-washington-is-a-bad-idea.html). Other scientists argue the state of affairs has given them no choice but to get involved. Jones, the vision scientist, acknowledges that becoming a political advocate is not easy for himself or his colleagues. “Science is not partisan and most scientists I know are not interested in politics—they just want to do their jobs,” he says. “But we are realizing that we are in crisis mode and it’s time to speak up and come out of our labs and educate the public.” ## Transcript Science used to be a bipartisan issue. Everyone use to love science. Everyone wanted to go to space. We're in such a crisis that we can't be complacent anymore. Speaking of global warming it's suppose to be 70 degrees today, it's freezing here. The President's first budget issues a big blow to the Environmental Protection Agency. President Trump taking major steps to strip down Obama era regulations to combat climate change. You don't have to be a scientist to see that Donald Trump has his facts wrong. As scientists, we haven't done a great job of speaking to things that people are worried about right Right now. And [ UNKNOWN ] is great but if you have the privilege to be comfortable you should stop bein comfortable. You can have the best candidate in the world World. But if you don't have the resources to communicate, you cannot possibly be successful. And that could be a very difficult thing to do. You know, to call up someone you went to highschool with and ask them For $ 250 or whatever the number. Scientists traditionally looked at science as being above politics. The thought was, well, we'll just put the evidence and the results of our research out there, and let the facts speak for themselves. And that's not working. And so I founded 314 Action to bring the scientific community together, but also to encourage them to run. We need scientists to step up and actually get involved in electrical politics . >> [ LAUGH ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] I don't want to live in a world where I'm afraid my baby drinks the bath water and I don't want to live a world where I'm afraid of her playing in dirt because it has led in it. And things that real people are dealing with. I want her to see by me running that when our country really is in crisis we don't just sit down, that her mom stood up for her and that she should do that too. Thank you so much for having us here today. Yeah, so I'm running for congress. This was not the life, I had envisioned for myself, ever. But things happen and our country changes and I am worried about our country. Probably many of you are if you are in this room. Most Americans believe in global warming. Far greater Percent of Americans believe in global warming, then Congress believes in global warming. And that's a huge problem, right? And so I think it's really time for scientists to step up to the table. I'm Abby and I'm a biologist, so [ LAUGH ] Obviously a lot of us are passionate. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4749221/science-march-scientists-partisan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4749221/science-march-scientists-partisan/"},"headline":"Why Scientists Are Joining the March for Science","datePublished":"2017-04-21T18:08:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:49:48.478Z","description":"The March for Science takes place on Earth Day, April 22. 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