AFL-CIO: ‘Unionized Scientists March in Protest of Attacks on Science and Jobs’ – Oppose Budget Cuts

Of all the attacks on our civil society, the attacks on evidence-based science pose perhaps the greatest existential threat. Decisions being made about climate science and environmental protection at this critical time will shape the future of our planet.

Advances in research are produced by the twin pillars of dedicated scientists and an activated citizenry who demand that the best science be applied to today’s most pressing problems. Because scientists produce the facts that expose the lies currently being purveyed, the tip of the spear is pointed at the heart of science-based policy and research.

But the imminent threat also presents an extraordinary opportunity for the scientific community to unify around a message of resistance, one in which organized labor has a critical role to play. Unionized scientists are well-positioned to fight back against the false narratives being pushed by the administration and to advocate collectively for continued funding of crucial basic research. Science professionals need a workplace free from fear of corporate power and political malfeasance influencing their results. We are the protectors of truth and facts, and in that way we all are in service to the public. With scientific integrity, we speak truth to power.

Budget cuts are the beginning of the attack. For example, the Donald Trump administration is proposing a 31% cut in funding and 21% cut in workforce at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on top of less-heralded budget cuts over the past three years. Such low funding levels have not been seen since the 1970s, prior to the enactment of most of our national environmental laws. Enforcement is also targeted, crippling the EPA’s ability to protect human health.

It’s not a ‘March for Science’ – it’s ‘Anti-Trump Day’

Climate Depot‘s Marc Morano, a skeptic of catastrophic man-made global warming, says this isn’t about science.

Morano, Marc (Climate Depot)“The entire march is based on the premise that President Trump is destroying the earth, destroying the climate, and [that] this is going to be devastating,” he tells OneNewsNow.

Calling the March 29 march a “mass mobilization,” the national coordinator of the Peoples Climate Movement describes the Trump administration’s repeal of Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan as “a dangerous step that puts people and the planet at grave risk.”

Morano’s not buying it. “This is a standard political march with a climate label,” he states. “It’s going to be the usual suspects showing up – [and] I can’t imagine that they have anything new to add to this debate.”

He also points out that the science and models promoted by many of those groups even admit that regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency and the United Nations treaties would have no impact on the climate.…

This Isn’t A ‘March For Science’ — This Is About Economic And Political Policy

The complaint which is driving the ‘March for Science’ isn’t about an attack on science at all. Far from it, it’s one group of scientists not understanding that the policy they advocate is , by the scientific experts in the policy, considered to be a bad one which should be replaced. “Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus.

Source: This Isn’t A March For Science This Is About Economic And Political Policy