For the sake of science, seven UF students plan to march on the nation’s capital.
The students will carpool more than 700 miles to join the March for Science in Washington, D.C. to protest President Donald Trump’s views on science. Organizers for the march said in a tweet that they will announce the march’s official date soon.
The organizers, according to the march’s official website, are members of a nonpartisan group and want political leaders to enact evidence-based science policies, like acknowledging climate change. The group also wants to end the Trump administration’s recent scrutiny of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Alexis Rosetti, a UF international studies and political science junior from Maryland, planned the trip for her friends, because she wanted people from Florida to be involved.
“I’m excited in a sense; we hope we can make a change,” the 20-year-old said. “But alarmed in a sense that we even have to go protest the access to information.”
Christa Zweig, a UF Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation courtesy faculty member, said she feels like she has to protest for the rest of the country.
“A lot of times people think what we do is about saving the environment, but we’re saving the environment to save people,” she said.
Zweig, 42, has two master’s degrees from UF: one in wildlife ecology and conservation and the other in natural resources and the environment. She currently works in South Florida as a researcher on Everglades restoration. She wants the government to acknowledge the reality of climate change and to stop restricting government scientists from publicizing their work, she said.
“I’ll march because they deserve to do their very important job without fear for their careers,” she said.
Mason Schoeppl, a UF sustainability and the built environment sophomore, said he has cared for the environment since he became a vegetarian as a young child.
“The government is trying to destroy climate change,” the 20-year-old said. “Basically they’re erasing history and what scientists have already proven.”
Although Schoeppl said he thinks the march will be impactful, he’s not sure if he’ll be able to attend.
Rosetti said she decided to march after the White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Press Secretary Sean Spicer used “alternative facts” to describe Trump’s inauguration crowds.
“The public access to accurate information, especially with science, uses an unbiased source of numbers,” she said. “That access is very important.”
Rosetti said she knows climate change exists and advises anyone who doesn’t to read scientists’ findings. She said Trump should work with global organizations to combat the issue.
“I think people are afraid, and I think people want to make sure in a very outward and public way that their voices are being heard and quite literally marching on Washington to not be ignored,” she said.
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