Jenny Peek
Madison's March for Science began at James Madison Park and moved to Library Mall.
Before retiring, Holly Walter Kerby spent her career educating students about the atoms that make up the planet. From the periodic table to the basics of chemical bonding, students in her chemistry class at Madison College were shown the world around them — on a microscopic level.
As a scientist and an educator, Walter Kerby hasn't been sure how to respond to the repeated denials of basic scientific fact by President Donald Trump. She decided the March for Science was a good place to start.
“I wanted to do something,” says Walter Kerby.
Walter Kerby was one of some 5,000 people, according to unofficial Madison police estimate, who marched from James Madison Park to Library Mall to advocate for open, inclusive and accessible science, and to affirm science as a democratic, nonpartisan value.
“Nothing could be more absurd than the politicization of science,” Walter Kerby says. “Science is about evidence, it’s not about politics or opinions or slanting things.”
The science march was one of hundreds held around the country on April 22, geared to resist the policies of President Trump. But it wasn’t the only political march in Madison Saturday. The People’s Climate March — a call to combat global warming — started at the Capitol and went to MGE. The climate march, which drew about 2,500 people, is also part of a national coordinated protest scheduled for April 29. The Madison activists held their protest a week earlier because of conflicts with Madison’s Crazy Legs race.
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Jenny Peek
The science march ended in Library Mall, where several people spoke.
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Susan Kaye
A separate, but sympathetic, protest calling for action against climate change moved from the Capitol to the MGE plant on the near east side.
The science marchers wore white lab coats, meticulously knitted brain hats, and sweatshirts with NASA logos inked across the chest. They carried signs praising scientists Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Carl Sagan. Others carried poster boards with quotes from Dr. Seuss’ environmental storybook The Lorax. Chants like “I love science yes I do, I love science how about you?” and “Science not silence” spread through the crowd.
Once at Library Mall, the event’s speakers took to the stage.
Tia Nelson, daughter of former Gov. Gaylord Nelson, who founded Earth Day, spoke about her father’s legacy, and remembered a time when politicians from both sides worked together to protect the environment.
“Earth day changed the course of history, it launched the environmental decade,” Nelson told the crowd. “President Richard Nixon – a Republican – signed into law the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency to create protections for your right to breathe clean air and your right to drink clean water — laws that we take for granted today, but we should not because all of them are in jeopardy.”
The fear of losing decades worth of environmental protections is one of the many motivators that pushed a soil scientist named Amy to attend the march.
“Science is super important, it benefits everybody. To see it come under attack is sad, heartbreaking, and it doesn’t benefit anyone,” she says. “I just hate to see the funding go away and the progress to halt. We’ve been making good progress, I’m afraid of going backwards.”
Erin Walke, a chemist, microbiologist and chemical engineer by training, shares Amy’s concerns for the future.
“I fear that the damage in the short term, in the next three to five years, will be so difficult to undo that we might end up with bigger problems than we’re going to be able to solve without bankrupting our society,” Walke says, citing global warming as an example.
While concerns for science denial were consistent among the crowd, speakers remained positive, calling on scientists to leave their labs and engage in society as citizens. Dr. Bassam Shakhashiri, a professor of chemistry at UW-Madison, spoke about scientists’ obligation to use their skills for the benefit of all.
“We must strive to achieve science literacy among the general public,” Shakhashiri told the crowd. “Science literacy does not imply a detailed knowledge of chemistry, physics or biology, but rather a broad understanding and appreciation of what science is capable of achieving and equally important, what science cannot accomplish.”
Shakhashiri asked the scientists in the crowd to join him in engaging the general public in conversations that do not belittle or minimize their intelligence.
“We must develop and learn the importance of speaking with people, not speaking at them,” Shakhashiri urged. “We must listen carefully.”
As for next steps, Mike McCabe of Blue Jean Nation, an organization that seeks to transform democratic institutions through community outreach and civic education, stressed the importance of meeting people where they are.
“People don’t care how much you know unless they know how much you care,” McCabe told the crowd. “I challenge you to do this, for every hour that you spend exhibiting how much you know, spend two demonstrating how much you care.”
