‘Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!’ unite in Providence for ‘March for Science’

April 23--PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The weather -- just like a proven scientific fact -- is apolitical.

It doesn't bend to the whims of humans, even those intent on rallying during an unseasonably chilly spring afternoon. So, from the State House steps, professors, students, scientists and health-care professionals spoke to a sea of soggy protesters holding umbrellas and damp signs.

Their message? Science matters.

The Providence rally was one of many March for Science events held around the globe on Earth Day. The idea started as a conversation on Reddit, an online discussion site, in the aftermath of January's Women's March and spread to more than 600 U.S. cities and six continents, the Associated Press reported.

From the Washington Monument to Times Square, Antarctica to Australia, students, scientists, researchers and professors spoke about the importance of scientific freedom without the influence of partisan politics, increased spending for research, and a general acceptance of proven facts.

In Providence, people of all ages and backgrounds united around a shared love of science. Their signs were clever. Some displayed complicated equations, but others were simpler: "2 + 2 does not equal 5," "Listen to your Mother," "Make America Think Again," and the ever-popular "Dump Trump."

"Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!" a group of high school girls chanted. It quickly caught on, becoming a rallying cry for the day.

While the Women's March brought people in pink "pussy hats" and talk of reproductive rights to Smith Hill, the science marchers wore decidedly less controversial knitted pink "brain hats" and talked scientific theory and clean energy.

Ellen Quinn, an accountant who lives in Providence, said science is something that brings people together in a way that's only paralleled by religion. Humans rely on science, she said, and that fact is hard to disagree with.

"We have a common acceptance of the values of science in this country," Quinn said. "But our government has been taken hostage by crazy ideas. People need to speak with their voices and their bodies."

Quinn called the march her fight against the "Trump derangement syndrome."

She and her friend Donna Somerville, of Johnston, fear the effects of President Donald Trump's proposed cuts on science programs. March organizers, such as 19-year-old Zoe Goris, an intern at the Community College of Rhode Island's Margaret Jacoby Observatory in Warwick, also expressed this concern.

Trump's threat to overturn climate regulations and "rewrite" key pieces of environmental protection law is "undeniably tone deaf," Goris said.

"Science allows us to reach fundamental truths. It rules out personal feelings," she said. "It is not a tool to be manipulated to fuel political agendas."

Her message was broad -- she values peer review and consultation with experts -- but also specific. Trump's idea to remove environmental guidelines in infrastructure policies could affect the very land protesters were standing on when hotels pop up around the city in coming months, she said.

When Goris mentioned the proposed power plant in Burrillville, the crowd "booed" back at her.

It was a strange scene where simple statements of fact, such as "climate change is real," elicited thunderous applause.

Sunshine Menezes, executive director of the Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting at the University of Rhode Island, spoke to the importance of science communication -- a message that reverberated through the crowd. Scientists, she said, often seem to "speak a different language."

By "clinging to technical language" -- rather than speaking normally as they might do in their private lives -- scientists create barriers to a broader public understanding, Menezes said.

"Our reluctance to tell interesting stories about science is a problem," she said. "It builds walls between those who study science for a living and those who live the science that is studied."

A common gripe in this new era of protests is that organizers spew too many complaints with too few solutions.

Here, perhaps due to the analytical nature of the crowd, that was not the case.

Speakers came armed with ways their audience could help, including committing to being critical thinkers, supporting journalists, engaging new people about how science affects their lives, reading, and asking questions.

One popular sign depicted the urgency of the march's message: "There is no Planet B."

jtempera@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7121

On Twitter: @jacktemp

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