March For Science Houston, April 22, 2017

Righteous!  My friend’s daughter keeps changing her mind from being a vet to an ornithologist and loves photography.  From her love of birds, she’s already identified over 300 species.  She’s 10.  Go Bella!

I know there will be a huge number of March For Science and Earth Day blog posts out there, so just add mine to the fray.  The premise of this march meant enough to me to actually join in – at age 56 – my first protest march ever.

Was it a “protest”?  The March for Science was meant to be a bipartisan event, promoting the scientific method, fact-based approaches to the study of the environment and climate change, and the benefits to humanity which have resulted from science.  As my friend’s daughter points out in the photo above:  her little brother would not be alive were it not for the accomplishments of medical science.  He was born 3-1/2 months early.  He’s now a sweet, happy, laughing 15 months old (11-1/2 months adjusted – they do that for preemies).

So, back to the March.  Was it a protest in addition to a celebration of all things and people scientific?  Ultimately, yes.  We probably should be having marches like this every year in celebration of scientists and all the things they’ve learned and created through science that aid us in our daily lives (Hubble telescope, space shuttles, internet, radio, iTunes, cell phones, velcro, medicine, photography, coffee makers, planes, trains, automobiles, etc).  We should be doing this not just because of the current administration.  It’s this current administration, however, that impelled these world-wide marches.  I still find it mind-boggling there are people out there (including the elected president) who deny climate change and want to cut funds to health and other scientific research.  America has been at the forefront of so many scientific discoveries, and now we should take a back seat??  I’m uncertain as to how this is “making America great”.   Whenever I think about this, I become that “mad scientist” you’ll see in one of the signs below.

Ok, enough of politics.  I leave you with images I captured during this very short, but very transformational march for me.

The number of marchers 10 minutes prior to the beginning of the event.  And more people kept streaming in.

In all honesty, I’d be kinda lost without coffee, wine and beer.  Just sayin’ 😉

A scientist who votes.  Somebody in government should be getting a little nervous, I should think.

Marchers were there of all ages.  Made me proud to know so many people care about fact-based research and the scientific method.

Let’s see … I was born in 1961 so the CO2 level was probably around 318 – 319 ppm, approximately.

My favorite sign was the “Mad Scientist” sign.  The next time I reach that boiling point of anger, I’ll think of this sign.

The Planet Dress

The Brain Hat.  I saw a number of them in varying  colors during the march.  And they all looked very neat, and very hot.  While it was not particularly humid, it was quite warm and sunny (thankfully, since thunderstorms were predicted).

The march ended at the Houston City Hall.  So many people!  It’s estimated as many as 15,000 people participated in this event.

Let’s not forget that it was Earth Day, as well.  This gentleman saw me with my camera and came up to me to tell me he’d worn this same shirt during the very first Earth Day march.  I told him that definitely merited a photo.

For those of you interested, I used my Canon 1DX and 24-105mm lens to capture these images above.  The 24-105 is the perfect walking-around lens with a good number of focal lengths from which to choose.  All this, courtesy of science.

Your’s truly with a couple of friends she walked with at the march.

Twins? Triplets? The science of cloning?  Nah – well, not really – actually it was the science of Photoshop!