APRIL 22, 2017 "EARTH 🌎 DAY" - This weekend I'll be joining scientists of all occupations for what is being dubbed the "March for Science". As I did for the
Women's March, I feel the need to explain why this is important enough for me to give up my Saturday and what I hope it accomplishes.
For starters, I'd like to make it very clear that I am not marching for any particular political party or group. I consider myself an independent thinker and I am marching on behalf of myself and my fellow humans.
Secondly, I am not technically a scientist, but I believe in science. Just as I am not a theologian, and believe in religion. With a little bit of effort, I have found those two concepts can exist simultaneously in my head and not be contradictory. I regret that I feel the need to make that distinction, but I want that stated.
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Google defines "science" as:
"The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment."
When scientists come to consensus on a subject, it represents what we know collectively to be true at this moment in time. On the subject of Climate Change, the scientific consensus is there: it is a real and active threat to the fate of our existence on this planet.
Ignoring this is convenient. Accepting it, however, requires that we take action both personally and politically to remedy it. It also requires us to view Mother Nature as an active participant in our existence on this planet.
Never in the history of humanity have people been forced to collaborate so extensively so as to deliberately alter the fate of our host planet. That is not to say we haven't accomplished feats of this magnitude before: landing on the moon, creating atomic energy, harnessing the power of the sun... all of those things have gone a long way to altering the fate of our existence. They also share something important in common: American Scientists.
Americans have altered the fate of humanity in the past and will do so again. We are not a people to gleefully back down from a challenge. However we must be convinced that one lies before us.
That is why I am marching: to assert that I acknowledge and value scientific agreement, and to show others that I am willing to do my part, whatever that may be, to advance human interests and life on this planet. I take my being a citizen of the world as seriously as my being a citizen of this country.
Love,
Steve
