"The Movement of March for Science"

CREATIVITY & DISRUPTION

How the March for Science Became a Movement

BY MEGAN MOLTENI VIA WIRED.COM

In January 2017, what started as a subreddit thread about the new White House scrubbing all mention of climate change from its official government website became, just three months later, the single biggest pro-science demonstration in the history of humankind. On April 22, more than a million people across all seven continents took to the streets (and dirt roads and snowfields) to declare themselves, not dispassionately, for the fundamental political value of science. The idea that the rules that govern society should be based on evidence, not partisan caprice, is an assertion seemingly so noncontroversial that before last year’s inaugural March for Science, most people had never even thought about raising a latex glove-covered fist in the air to defend it. According to a (non-peer-reviewed) survey, 90 percent of people who showed up that day considered the March for Science their first science-related public demonstration. But for many, it wouldn’t be their last.