I'll be back later to post my story, we're about to begin writing it here shortly.
Small Album (I'm the smug POS in the NASA shirt accidentally trolling Devac with my almost-correct maths). Major success. If I had to guess, we had somewhere around 15k people come out, and that's just for the Houston chapter. I wouldn't be surprised if the D.C. march broke 75k. Of course, there were some great signs. I was kinda surprised to find myself the only person with a re-configurable whiteboard setup. We would intermittently write scary equations and then playful messages. My friend suggested, "I'm not a 'mad' scientist, but I am pretty disappointed", so that got written, and I also had "I'd rather be doing science", which was kinda true. I'm not going to list some of the more clever ones, there will be at least TEN INCREDIBLE LISTICLES OF PROTEST SIGNS EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE tomorrow, all across the internet, I'm sure. There was a scientist cover band (biology slant, they changed one pop song's lyrics to be about tardigrades). The kick drum was mic'd way too much for the mix, no one was in key, they clearly are studying science when they should be practicing, etc., etc., so that was perfect. One of our profs showed up, but quickly wriggled away. Many working professionals brought their kids. Toddlers were playing and swimming in the fountain as the speakers talked for entirely too long about things we all had agreed to support already. It was awesome. :) Probably the most inspiring thing I've been apart of in awhile. Cheers, Hubski.
For a political march in Houston, that's enormous.If I had to guess, we had somewhere around 15k people come out, and that's just for the Houston chapter.
I went, stayed for a few minutes, left. Lovely sentiments all around. I'm not sure what 'continued advocacy' looks like other than voting blue team every time they come up on the ballot. Also, this shouldn't be a left-only issue, but it does seem to be sold that way. It's the problem that when you speak honestly about certain topics, you come across as biased, typically against the capital R, Right. You would think that everybody would be against disease, against polluted air and water.
This thing turns 25 this year. So when people tell me that it's not agreed upon, or that scientists have flip-flopped on the matter (I'M SORRY ABOUT THAT ONE COOLING DEBACLE IN THE 80'S OR WHENEVER), I get a li'l mad. The people who deny climate change altogether now all seem to have one thing in common: effectively NO exposure to (or use of) mathematics and mathematical concepts in their day-to-day lives. They cannot fathom how the process of global warming works, and live life with complete removal from the scientific community. These people were bamboozled rather easily, perhaps (on average) just shy of a decade ago. The people who deny that climate change is overwhelmingly man-made are victims of (or, less commonly, knowingly propagating) the current mantra of corporate denialism at the forefront of policy making. This is Stage 5 of the Stay Rich As Shit Plan: "Prolong the Inevitable: Question the EXACT Extent of Man's Role". These people already know they're going to lose, because folks like me have gotten so pissed off that they've morphed into vocal introverts, out of sheer necessity. So if you're reading this, and that's what you've been doing, I'm sorry, that's what I think you're up to. I'm really sorry. A lot of people say regulation is good. Other people vocally disagree. As always, it's stupid to take a blanket stance one way or the other, but in the case of global warming, the tragedy of the commons has already compounded beyond repair in a demonstrably measurable way. For anyone to think that the academic system isn't set up to create huge incentives for someone to scientifically nix climate change... well, wrong, it is set up like that. The people nixing it aren't doing good science. It's not a conspiracy; there are thousands of climate scientists: Note to self: do NOT use Al Gore (or other politicians) to introduce incredibly important apolitical concepts.