March for Science returns to Raleigh with message for Trump

Saturday's second annual March for Science in Raleigh wasn't a march so much as a sit-down affair, with signs, lots and lots of signs in the bright sunshine of Halifax Mall — many of them quite pointed toward the current administration.

"Smash the patriarchy, not the planet"

"The oceans are rising and so are we"

"I speak for the trees"

"Science not silence"

"Yay earth!"

"Trump's team is like atoms, they make up everything"

About 100 people gathered to hear a program of speakers and folksingers, including HowStuffWorks.com founder Marshall Brain, wildlife researcher Luke Dollar and science comedian Brian Malow. In the crowd as well as onstage, the message was mostly, "Listen to the scientists."

"Too often nowadays, decisions are based on ideology or special interests rather than empirical evidence," said attendee Randolph Bower, an air-pollution scientist at a Research Triangle Park firm. "Whether it's gun control or climate change, the government is limiting research because they're afraid of the answers."

This was the second March for Science, which debuted last year as part of more than 600 coordinated events across the planet. Worldwide attendance was an estimated 1 million people in 2017.

Saturday's event happened in the midst of controversy over embattled Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, who is under fire for the EPA's enforcement priorities as well as spending. Democratic Congressman David Price, who attended the Raleigh event but was not on the program of speakers, alluded to that in an interview.

"This administration is full of climate-change deniers and people have been put in charge who seem opposed to their own agencies, whether it's the EPA or secretary of the interior," Price said. "The environment is under siege. But we are going to turn it around."

This story was originally published April 14, 2018 at 7:00 AM with the headline "March for Science returns to Raleigh with message for Trump."