By Nick McClintock
NORMAL- People from around the scientific and educational community will converge on Uptown Circle Saturday morning for the first of March for Science. The event will be just one of nearly 600 rallies across the globe, including a large march in Washington D.C.
Distinguished Professor of Ecology at Illinois State University, Steven Juliano, says the scientific community does feel a lot of push back, both from political and public sides. “We have a strong sense that there an increasing denial of the value of scientific knowledge by politicians and policymakers.” Juliano says.
According to the March for Science mission statement, “The March for Science champions robustly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity. We unite as a diverse, nonpartisan group to call for science that upholds the common good and for political leaders and policy makers to enact evidence based policies in the public interest.”
Juliano says the one thing that can make a difference, especially to political leaders, is a large community turnout. “We hope there will be a large turnout” Juliano said. “(We want) people who support the ideas and the knowledge science creates.”
The March for Science will begin Saturday at 9am. More info can be found HERE.
NIck McClintock can be reached at [email protected]
