March for Science brings thousands to Asheville streets

ASHEVILLE - As the fog began to clear at Aston Park Saturday morning several hundreds of people began to line the sidewalks ahead of a march to the Vance Monument in downtown Asheville.

The crowd, which grew to be more than 2,000 people, according to march organizers,  included scientists, would-be scientists and their advocates but also two brothers, Eric Schoellner, 14, and Brian Schoellner, 11.

The pair, who live in Hickory, had been on spring break in Kentucky visiting the Mammoth Cave National Park, but once Eric Schoellner heard about the March for Science movement he said he knew he needed to participate. His family packed up their car a day early and headed back to Western North Carolina to show their support for the scientific community and help showcase the role they say science plays in everyday life.

"It is important to me that everybody knows more about science to help save the entire world (especially) since funding for science and the EPA has been cut," Eric Schoellner said.

As Brian Schoellner held a sign that read "Nat'l parks are homes," he said he not only supported his brother but had his own reasons for participating in the march.

"National parks are important. If the animals die now they will die forever," he said.

Those who participated in the March for Science movement, including rallies and marches in more than 600 communities, protested to declare science "under attack" and to fight what they say is a growing trend by government to ignore scientific evidence when making policy.

Some who marched said they see the Trump administration, which has expressed skepticism about mankind's role in climate change and has eased regulations on coal and oil production, as a threat to science. Of particular concern to critics is the Trump administration's budget that calls for sizable cuts in funding for the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy's Office of Science.

"We have got to stand up for our earth and our air," said Pam Noel, who was visiting her son who lives in Asheville from Niles, Michigan.

"This is so important," she said. "I don’t think people realize what is being taken from us, including our science and our earth. Where we live up by Lake Michigan and Lake Eerie they are taking $15 million away from what we had going. It used to be a mess, but we have cleaned it up and if they stop the flow of money it will be really bad."

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By cutting funding drastically for programs that support clean air and removing pesticides from agriculture could create a bad environment for the future, Noel said. "I am very concerned."

Canton resident Marcia Tate said people won't survive without science.

"We can't be holding back research and each of us as individuals are responsible for our climate, the earth and what is happening," she said. "We need to make a statement."

Kenley Patanell said science should be accepted as fact and not as a political argument.

"We need to humanize science," said the Western Carolina University biology student. "I think a lot of people see science as an other or as just a scientist in the lab. But we are all people who have lives and have families and care about everything."

The Asheville march was a satellite march of the national March for Science taking place the same day in Washington D.C. and included additional marches held nationwide in cities big and small, including Auburn, Alabama; Valdosta, Georgia; Honolulu; Clearwater, Florida; Cleveland and Dallas, and at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.

Rallies were also being held in Australia, Croatia, Switzerland and New Zealand.

Organizers of the march encouraged scientists in their ranks to wear their lab coats, goggles, stethoscopes, field gear and other work clothes to make their presence known among a group that frequently shies away from public political displays.

"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," organizers of March for Science said on their website.

As an energetic crowd marched down Patton Avenue they stopped to gather near the Vance monument to listen to four speakers who talked about how science is used every day, science in relation to agriculture, the moral imperative of science and how they could continue momentum for this movement in the coming days, weeks and months.

Speakers at the march included: Sara Martin, an instructor at Haywood Community College; Holly Musgrove, a physician at Family Health Center; Western Carolina University professor Enrique Gomez; Jim Tolbert of the Citizens Climate Lobby and Julie Mayfield of MountainTrue.

Saturday's march was a beginning for supporters of science and those who work with science on a daily basis.

"Thank you for coming here today," Musgrove said. "You know we need more science not silence. Science cannot suppressed. We must let our voices be heard. Today we are starting a journey to take science out of the lab into the legislation and into the world."

To keep the momentum going after the March for Science, Tolbert recommended that people leave with the desire to stay curious and engage others.

"Both are critical to bringing science to the table," he said. "We're making a statement that goes way beyond making a one day statement. It is a lifelong activity. Have your voice be heard."