On Saturday, dozens of Costa Ricans joined to the worldwide mobilization that defends scientific research, which they believe is threatened by the administration of the American president Donald Trump.
The demonstration gathered people from all over the world and in Costa Rica the meeting point was the University of Costa Rica (UCR). The group of people then marched towards Fuente de la Hispanidad.
It is a way od demanding respect, of visualizing ourselves, of believing that science is not silent, it is also political and it is imperative,”
said Daniela Alpízar, president of the National University Students Association, on the official site of the UCR.
During the World Earth Day, they tried to unite both celebrations and highlighted the role of science in the conservation of the environment.
We want public policies to be based on science,”
said Andrés Beita, one of the organizers of the activity in Costa Rica.
Beita, like people from the rest of the world, criticizes that laws and regulations are often based on ideologies, thus removing the merit of those who devote their lives to the research of multiple phenomena.
Similar mobilizations take place in other cities in the United States, such as New York, and more than 600 marches are planned worldwide. Similar meetings have already been held in London, Paris, Ghana, and even New Zealand and Australia.
I am worried about the anti-science rhetoric of this administration and its lack of scientific knowledge,”
explained Kathy Ellwood, a 60-year-old biochemist.
If this president (Donald Trump) can impose his decisions, science will be in danger,” estimates Elisabeth Johnston, a retired 71-year-old biologist. “But there will be a lot of resistance in Congress,”
she added.
Kara Lukin, a 45-year-old professor of immunology at Western Governors University, who traveled to Washington from Denver with her six-year-old daughter,
hopes that this demonstrations will usher in a change in the United States, where science and education have been devalued in recent years.”
Trump said during his campaign that climate change was “a hoax” or false news and promised to lift the United States from the Paris agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a decision that is still debated by his advisors.
The first draft budget proposes a 31 percent drop in funds earmarked for the EPA and cuts in grants from national health institutes.