About 1,000 join March for Science in downtown Portland

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http://www.pressherald.com/2017/04/22/science-supporters-gather-to-march-in-maine-and-d-c/

About a thousand people marched up Congress Street from City Hall to Congress Square Park on Saturday morning to express their support for science and scientific research.

One of more than 600 simultaneous events held around the globe to support the March for Science in Washington, the Portland gathering featured speeches, an array of signs – many of them humorous – and a lot of scientists. It was one of six such rallies in Maine, the others slated for Gouldsboro, Orono, Sanford, Machias and Unity.

The march, which coincided with Earth Day, was the brainchild of several scientists who believe scientific endeavors are being threatened by the Trump administration, which has proposed big budget cuts to federal agencies that fund scientific research and has cast doubt on climate change science.

“Science is being ignored by a large section of society and the administration. Their time scale of interest is too short, at about five years. Mine is 10, 20, 30 or 40 and then my kids’ will be longer,” Matt Duvall of Auburn, senior director of strategy and analysis at Bates College in Lewiston, said at the Portland rally.

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