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Thousands of scientists, engineers and allies rally on the Common
By adamg on Sat, 04/22/2017 - 4:42pm
From across the Boston area's universities, biotech companies and hospitals, thousands of scientists and their allies crowded a soggy Boston Common today to battle an administration that seems intent on denying their research, cutting their funding and banning their colleagues and students from entering the country.
They cheered as Gina McCarthy, EPA administrator under Barack Obama and a Boston native, demanded the government work to save the planet. "As Americans, as New Englanders, as Boston strong - we care about our natural world!" she exclaimed. The crowd booed just as lustily when she mentioned the name Trump. "My poor EPA," she said. "Its 15,000 people - I love you!"
Scientists from every discipline, engineers, doctors from Mass. General and Boston Medical Center, veterinary students from Tufts, all came to the Common - and protested in scientific notation:
Even zombies support science:
Some protested Trump specifically:
Science is kind of a big deal in Boston:
And the scientists had allies:
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
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Comments
"Allies"
Sounds like a communist rally, i think supporters would have sufficed.
Allies is good
People who join the struggle who are not scientists themselves are allies.
I guess you could be more specific and say "poets who also don't want to die horribly from superbugs" or, maybe, "retired mechanics who want the planet to be habitable by their grandkids" ... among many others.
I think the usual term in
I think the usual term in that situation is "fellow travelers".
As cliche as it sounds, we
As cliche as it sounds, we used "comrades".
Allies against fascism
Remember World War II ?
Are you kidding?
Seriously?
Even more photos
Also there and taking lots of photos: Cybah, Turlach MacDonagh, Molly Lanzarotta, Mission-based Mass, Greg Cook.
Thanks Adam
yeah I took a TON of photos (355 to be exact). I just got home an hour or so ago (had a beer with someone I ran into after the march).. so I am rapidly editing and uploading the photos for folks to view them.
But in the meantime.. check out my twitter page for some of them while I upload.
I will say it was a lot of fun. And once again, scientists really do have the best signs out of all the rallies/marches I've photographed since January. Smart brains at work, I guess.
Pictures are done and uploaded!
Here ya go. Have a peek!
http://bos.tn/0kbgP
And in Cambridge
We're led to believe that science is kind of a big deal in Cambridge as well, as illustrated by Ron Newman's photos from the protest there.
I would have titled this
I would have titled this story: "Racist Cameraperson Only Photographs White People" but then the Where's Waldo types would have called me out on the couple of Asians and I would have had to come back with the fact that Asians are totally the new White people and then a thing would have been made out of it and some fringe Asian would have got their feelings hurt and some other barely-Asian would play victim and I would end up being the bad guy when it was the cameraperson who was all Norman Rockwell in the first place. Geesh. Grow up people.
You're already the bad guy
Boring, too.
Bored?
If boredom is your problem and trying to find a non-white person in the crowd is futile, then you can always entertain yourself with trying to find an attractive woman in the crowd. Melanin content of skin is basically objective but beauty is subjective, and therefore prone to multiple arbitrary factors. If you fail the first time, try applying a drunk filter, or some other caveat. I finally found one attractive enough but only when compared to Don Knotts doing a striptease.
Ew
How very misogynist of you...
What's the matter?
Mom run out of Hot Pockets so you had to come up out of your basement?
Bratty children like you should be grateful that the grownups are trying to keep your planet viable.
Do you always start arguments with yourself like that?
Sounds kind of unpleasant.
Quite often
Quite often, sir.
It is only unpleasant when I lose an argument to myself.
And cape cod is so diverse?
Right.
Look at the demographics for MA sometime - lots of white people, dear. Deal with it.
Diversity is NOT "majority minority". Get that shit out of your brainpan.
Why attack the person taking
Why attack the person taking the picture? I get that there are not many people of color in the pictures but I've seen other pictures and the crowd was not very diverse. That is a problem for sure but that stems from scientists not being good organizers and many people in the POC community already being occupied with other concerns. That does not diminish the impact of these marches though, people have only so much attention they can spend on things.
As Americans we care about our natural world...
So says Gina McCarthy, former head of the EPA:
And yet the average new house is 2700 sf
60% of new cars sold are SUVs or pick ups
Virtually all of us will choose to procreate rather than adopt (probably the single worst thing you can do for the environment)
And so on, and so on etc.
I guess we care. Just not very much. Or we say do as I say, not as I do.
"60% of new cars sold are SUVs or pick ups"
With MPG that exceed small sedans less than 10 years ago.
That's awesome
For everyone still living in 2007. Get back to me when today's SUV gets better mileage than today's small car. And we won't even talk total carbon footprint.
And the average American is
And the average American is able to:
Buy a 2700 sf house?
Buy a brand new SUV or Pick Up?
Afford a child?
Find accessible family planning resources?
Sounds like you need some of the scientific method to better assess the conclusions you're drawing from your data and make sure you aren't fooling yourself.
Also some social science might help you resist individualizing the problem of our environmental crisis and see it as the structural crisis that it is.
???????
A) you seem to miss the point
B) what in God's name are you talking about
Generalizations are the
Generalizations are the problem (in general -- not always).
How can someone declare what Americans care about? We're all individuals. Plenty of people choose an efficient car, or no car, or choose to live where they don't have to use their car often.
That's why it's helpful to have a government that sees the bigger picture.
I'm anything but anti-science
but, was stuck around these carbon based life forms today, and must say it reeked of entitlement and smugness. 'Scientists' can be, contrary to popular stereotypes, very narcissistic, smug, shifty and full of themselves; science departments in academia are particularly ripe in this regard.
And embracing the science geek/nerd stereotype doesn't excuse smugness, rudeness, lack of social skills.
Finally, these demos (or parades, etc.,) cause worse than usual chaos in Boston, on the MBTA, the streets. It seems like EVERY weekend now we have some event, protest, festival, whatever, here in Boston. It's out of control.
Narcissistic, smug, rude, lack of social skills, out of control
Sounds like the current administration in Washington, which is leading to these "chaotic" demos (or parades, etc.)
Oh poor you
Oh you poor thing.. you're inconvenienced by people showing what democracy looks like. We are doing what our Constitution allows us to do.
Well just remember those science nerds are the reason why you're able to post anonymously to an internet website today.
Yes, bow down and worship Zog!
Seriously, discover what happens when all the other carbon based life forms that make our modern world possible suddenly disappeared. Scientists are only one of many. But, you proved the point regarding smugness.
*eye roll*
Eye roll
Zog? Oh hahaha.
You know who Zog was, right?
An absolute dictator who surrounded himself with luxury while his people struggled with basics of peasant life.
He took power and installed himself as "king" in a manner that would be envied by 45 if he ever actually read any history of anything.
http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/king-zog-i-albania
Hrummmph!
You're projecting, dear
You're projecting, dear. Go yell at some kids to get off your lawn.
Unless you're rather elderly, it's been that way all your life. Why do you choose to live here?
God Bless the "Scientists" and predictions from Earth Day 1970
Predictions by the "experts" in 1970. It would take a heart of stone not to laugh. Keep voting Democrat!
“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.”
• Kenneth Watt, ecologist
“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
• George Wald, Harvard Biologist
“We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.”
• Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist
“Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.”
• New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day
“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”
• Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day
“Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
• Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University
“Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”
• Life Magazine, January 1970
“At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
“Air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
“We are prospecting for the very last of our resources and using up the nonrenewable things many times faster than we are finding new ones.”
• Martin Litton, Sierra Club director
“By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.'”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
“Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
• Sen. Gaylord Nelson
“The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
• Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
Granted not all the
Granted not all the predictions came true we have to look at the world we live in now. Look around, we are experiencing the hottest years, wettest years, driest years, coldest days, hotest days on record all in the span of a decade. From 90 to 35 on a regular basis. Many of the weather swings we have seen recently are not normal, sure they happened before but they were not annual events like they are now.
Lets look at the fact that our major rivers are much less polluted than they were even 20 years ago. Look at the Charles River, could you imagine people even going near that water in the 80's?
When I was a kid we had serious concerns about acid rain. The actions taken have reduced that threat. The first real signs of recovery took years to show after action was taken.
How about the Ozone layer? Actions were taken and now we are finally seeing some recovery on that front.
Go to hell.
Go to hell.
Or, may you live long enough to experience the hell on earth you and your generation created.
For Copernicus' sake
...You're a moron
which breitbart article did you copy/past this from?
"I don't immediately recognize the impacts of climate change and environmental decay around me, therefore it doesn't exist" - O-Fish-L, UniversalHub, 2017
Science means learning from our mistakes
All scientists make mistakes (because all humans do). What makes science work is that we are constantly on the lookout for how we might have messed up, and we're even harsher when critiquing the work of others! Testing ideas over and over again until they break leads us closer to the truth than any other method available to humanity.
(Aside: how do you determine the truth, and what makes you think it is better than this method?)
It's exactly this sort of adversarial scholarship that gave us the overwhelming scientific consensus we see today: the average global temperature is increasing well beyond natural cycles, caused by greenhouse gas emissions from human action, and it's changing climate patterns. When independent evidence from so many different sources (glacial melting, ocean acidification levels, crop growing season changes, animal migration patterns, sea level measurement, and simple temperature observation, just to name a few) all confirm the same hypothesis, that's a very strong indication it's correct. Finding reliable data against it would be an amazing discovery. There's a huge incentive to do this!
If we look at voices *against* this consensus, it's pretty much entirely those who stand to gain financially by lying about the truth: fossil-fuel corporations, studies funded by those corporations, and politicians who take donations from those corporations. Their (your) arguments are so weak that they need to go back to the 1970s, when climate science was in its infancy. I suppose on the far-right it's normal for knowledge to remain stagnant for 45 years, but science simply isn't like that.
Maybe look back on every time in your own life you've been less than perfect. You might learn something, and we'd all be better off from that.
Well, well
Someone is cherrypicking the past ... or more likely copying and pasting a screed of things taken out of context.
If you are so certain that climate change is a hoax, feel free to throw out all your AC units - or don't use them. I mean, you didn't need them in 1970, right? All that preaching about "we never needed blah blah blah" from all you old people. Live it.
Meanwhile, we've gone from an historic average of 8-10 days over 90F per year to an average of 14-16 in the past several years. Go ahead and prove us all wrong in the next heat wave and stay in your home without AC.
"It's hot in today in Boston"
"It's hot in today in Boston" is not evidence of global warming, the same exact way as "it's cold today in Boston" is not evidence against it.
The *global trend* in temperature measurements provides overwhelming evidence of global warming. But trying to convince someone using their own AC usage is only feeding the anti-evidence sentiment.
And
So?
The number and intensity of heatwaves has been rising for a couple of decades.
That is climate change.
She wasn't talking about today's hot weather - but the overall TREND.
More blindness in the service of denial.
Denial? Did you miss the part
Denial? Did you miss the part where I said there IS overwhelming evidence for global warming?
My point was that getting through a heat wave without your AC proves nothing. I've done so in some recent Boston summers. That doesn't prove anything, and bringing it up feeds denier thinking that ignores evidence in favor of personal anecdotes.
Explaining how science works to someone like Fish
is like trying to teach a mossy fence post how to mambo. You may be the world's most gifted dance instructor, but you're still talking to a damp, inert block of wood that got where it is by someone repeatedly hitting it over the head with a sledge.
This
...is poetry
I was out of town, so thanks!
I never go to protests, but had been hoping to go to this one, as it is so important, but I'm just flying back from Nevada today so I couldn't go. Thanks to Adam and the rest (The Professor and Mary Ann) for posting all these great photos. It really brought me a smile several thousands of miles away.
How well was the public
How well was the public health/immunology/community nursing/emergency medicine/urban planning/deep tissue massage/local history sciences sector represented?
Sad troll is sad
But, yes, there were a bunch of ER docs from Boston Medical Center there.
yep
I saw people with lab coats from MGH and the Brigham also.
Public health was well represented
I chose not to share my virulent personal microbiome with others, but I see a number of coworkers and colleagues from various institutions in Cybah's photos.
As an aspiring Urban Planner
I can say there was at least one of us represented. Also, ?
Signs
Very creative, thanks for posting. The women's marchers should take a cue from the scientists, you don't need vile slogans/words on your sign to make a point.
Thanks for the concern troll lecture
Of course, all us women scientists really care about your comfort level in these things. We just can't wait for you to mansplain it all to us silly stupid wimmins! Your fear of female anatomy is duly noted.
The women's march wasn't just
The women's march wasn't just women.
This. The original poster
This. The original poster wasn't comparing women and men. They were comparing the women's march with the science march.
Don't underestimate the
Don't underestimate the scientist ability to use vile language when necessary. I saw plenty of signs with that. Some of them weren't even mathematical expressions!