Issue Date 4•25•17
BY THE STUDENTS, FOR THE STUDENTS
Volume 13 No. 13
ACE Marches for Science SMCC Group Joins Boston Protest By Ivan Del Mar, Jack Gentempo and Ben Riggleman
Saturday, April 22, wasn’t a typical Earth Day; it was a day of impassioned activism for the sake of science. Rallies held under the name March for Science took place in Washington, D.C. and over 600 other towns and cities across six continents. While an international event, the March for Science began and gained traction in the United States, where the administration of President Donald Trump is seen by many as hostile toward science itself. A contingent from the Association of Cosmic Explorers (ACE), SMCC’s student astronomy club, traveled to Boston to join the March for Science there. The group consisted of 10 students and one faculty advisor, physics professor Kevin Kimball. Eight of the students were members of ACE; the two others were a videographer and a reporter for The Beacon. The group got up before dawn on the 22nd. Some of the greatest scientific discoveries have resulted from sleeping past noon, such as when a young René Descartes invented the Cartesian plane by laying in bed one morning and lazily tracking the coordinates of a fly via its position relative to the axes of two walls. However, there was no time to sleep in for ACE’s trip to Boston, as the Downeaster left at 6:30 sharp. (Train travel has a relatively small carbon footprint compared to travel by car or bus.) The journey kicked off with a rendezvous at the Portland Transportation Center, where ACE Coordinator Nicholas Sebastien Moll gave an impassioned reading of a recent opinion piece in The Forecaster
regarding the current tension between the public and science. According to the author, Gordon Street, the misconception that science itself is an entity with it’s own agenda has caused a large number of people to mistrust science. The article inspired the group to consider not only what they were marching for, but why. They arrived in Boston at 9:15 a.m., leaving some time to kill before the demonstration began. A detour was made to the Skywalk Observatory in the Prudential Center, Boston’s second-tallest building. The Skywalk circles the top floor of the Prudential Center 749 feet above street level, offering a 360-degree glass vantage point on the city. It was overcast, cold and damp outside. The Common, Boston’s central park, was almost deserted, which might convince any would-be protestor that the weather would be too great a deterrent for the day’s march. However, perspectives shifted the moment the group’s feet hit the ground. ACE and other marchers headed towards the Common from Copley Square, with a spring in their step despite the chill and moisture in the air. It soon began to rain, but nevertheless, upon approach-
ing the Common, the group witnessed folks flooding in from all parts of Boston, holding their signs proudly in spite of the bleeding ink. Police watched on standby, directing traffic to slow down across the major intersections surrounding the park. A brass ensemble playing upbeat music filled the Common with an invigorating sense of protest. Children were treated to a display of science experiments, and despite the wind and rain, a large group of protesters sat in solemn meditation. The band soon yielded the sound system to 15
Portland Marches in Solidarity
Avery Yale Kamila of the Portland Press Herald addresses the crowd on Saturday
By Rebecca Dow On Earth Day last Saturday, hundreds of people arrived at Portland’s very own City Hall Plaza to participate in a march for science. They held up signs showing phrases like “Don’t be a fossil fool” and “I’m with Her” with arrows pointing to a picture of the earth. I had the opportunity to attend, myself, and I couldn’t help but
feel a sense of community when surrounded by so many people who were speaking up and bringing light to some of our society’s more sensitive topics. It can take a lot for people to come out of their comfort zone and march on the streets on a frigid April day; however, the purpose was there in every soul. Every person there was participating for their own vitally important reason. As we marched from City Hall Plaza to High Street, passersby filmed or snapped pictures, cars honked their horns in support, and shop workers stood at their windows to witness the event. Once the group had made its way to the end of its route, we gathered and stood in a crowd to listen as speakers covered a variety of science-related topics. One that truly caught my attention was the speech on pesticide use by journalist Avery Yale Kamila of the Portland Press Herald. She spoke of how most of Canada has banned the use and sale of cosmetic lawn chemicals, with France soon creating its own bans. She spoke about the health impact of pesticides, how Portland is being manipulated by the pesticide industry, and how bees are coming back to areas that have banned pesticides. You can watch the
full video at the following link: https:// youtu.be/WIFfMCy8AWM. I highly recommend watching the video, for Avery extrapolates well on issues regarding the health and safety concerns many have on the topic of pesticides and their use. Getting out and attending community events such as the March for Science can not only be an educational experience, but also provide an outlet from which to further participate in activism, volunteering and speaking out against things you don’t
high-profile advocates for science. These included Gina McCarthy, who served as head of the Environmental Protection Agency from 2013 to 2017; Dava Newman, former head of NASA; renowned Harvard geneticist George Church; and Steven Holtzman, president of hearing-enhancement biotechnology company Decibel Therapeutics. Despite being an officially non-partisan rally, political concern was certainly present — and visible in many of the demonstra(Continued on Page 3)
agree with. In a world that is becoming more modernized by the day, we need to create alternate methods and practices for getting the material things we want in life. In the end, all we have is our planet. My dear readers, it is my hope that whatever contribution you may have made for the environment on Earth Day resonates with you well into the year and beyond.
Photos by Rebecca Dow