Climate denier in White House prompts a 'March for Science' on Earth Day

Denis Hayes, coordinator of the first Earth Day, helped organize this year's action, which may prove to be an important moment for those opposed to President Donald Trump. Denis Hayes, coordinator of the first Earth Day, helped organize this year's action, which may prove to be an important moment for those opposed to President Donald Trump. Photo: JORDAN STEAD, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: JORDAN STEAD, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 48 Caption Close Climate denier in White House prompts a 'March for Science' on Earth Day 1 / 48 Back to Gallery

The power of climate change deniers in Congress -- plus a president who once called global warming "a hoax" -- has galvanized Earth Day on its 47th anniversary.

Its main event this year, on April 22, will be a March for Science in Washington, D.C., and around the world. Its goal being "to save science from this assault," in the words of Denis Hayes, president of the Seattle-based Bullitt Foundation.

"The concept of white coats marching is intriguing," said Hayes, who as a Stanford law student helped organize the first Earth Day in 1970.

The assault on science is now and real. The Trump administration is talking of a 19-20 percent cut in the National Institutes of Health, the nation's bulwark against disease. The NIH usually approves grants on a multi-year basis.

"If the cuts go through, they will be able to make no grants at all in 2018," Hayes said.

The federal Sea Grant program supports 3,000 scientists across the country, a fair number of them -- under University of Washington auspices -- working to restore Olympic Peninsula salmon runs and bolster the shellfish industry. The Trump administration wants to totally eliminate Sea Grant.

The list goes on, from blocking publications by U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists until review by political appointees, to scrubbing references to climate change on the White House website. The Environmental Protection Agency is targeted for a 31 percent budget cut.

"Unlike any movement I can think of, environmentalism is a science-based movement," Hayes argues.

The first Earth Day in 1970, with its marches and teach-ins, was science-inspired.

Rachel Carson, in her bestseller "Silent Spring," had outlined the threat to bird life posed by the pesticide DDT. Scientists had outlined how nuclear testing in the atmosphere put strontium 90 into children's milk.

President Richard Nixon was no environmentalist: A White House photo op showed the 37th president walking on the Pacific beach outside his San Clemente, California, home wearing wingtip shoes.

Still, Nixon saw a popular cause and signed into law the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, and legislation creating the EPA. He did veto the Clean Water Act, but was overridden by an overwhelming bipartisan vote in Congress.

After promising to be "the environmental president," George H.W. Bush signed amendments strengthening the Clean Air Act.

"Science isn't Republican or Democratic; to the extent that we have smart or dumb public policies, science is for smart policies," Hayes said.

The scientific community is speaking up, resisting a witch hunt being mounted against climate scientists by the House Science Committee and climate change-denying Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican and ally of Big Oil.

More than 14,000 women scientists signed a pledge, and 151 scientific institutions sent President Donald Trump a letter arguing that he should rescind his travel and immigration crackdown.

The March for Science, like the Women's March earlier this year, began as a Reddit conversation. Its main event, as in 1970, will be a rally and teach-in on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Denis and Gail Hayes were on a long-planned New Zealand trip when the desire of a National Mall march caught hold. Denis Hayes is now trying to raise the money necessary to pull it off, and to get the needed permits.

"This has become a lot tougher since the women's march wonderful that it was," Hayes joked.

"Can we do this fast?" Hayes asked, a month before the march.

Nor, as with the first Earth Day, will you need travel to Washington, D.C., to be in on the action. According to Hayes, 400 groups around the country are planning marches or teach-ins or demonstrations.

The first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, engaged 20 million Americans and launched a movement that has made America's air cleaner, cleaned up rivers that were fire hazards, and protected millions of acres of America's wild places and the country's scenic "crown jewels."

It has spawned an Earth Day Network that works year-round with partners in 192 countries: A billion people now join Earth Day activities around the world, making it the globe's larges civic observance.

The urgency of Earth Day in 2017 is unequaled since 1970. After all, the new EPA director, a former Oklahoma attorney general, is a climate change denier who made his mark suing the agency he now directs.