Science supporters will be out in force throughout the Bay Area this weekend.
A "March for Science" is scheduled to take place this Saturday at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza as part of a worldwide rally.
More than 500 communities around the world, including the Bay Area's San Francisco, San Jose, Pacifica, Walnut Creek, Hayward and Livermore, will participate in the demonstration, according to the East Bay Times.
The Facebook event for the Berkeley rally shows more than 450 people planning to attend.
The event on Earth Day invites attendees to bring lab coats, rally signs and "gather together to defend our planet and our institutions through civic engagement and sustained political action at the local, state, and federal level."
Saturday's Berkeley march will be held from 4 to 7:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, about 500 people pre-registered to march across the mudflats and wetlands of the Hayward Regional Shoreline, a stretch of restored marshes beside the San Francisco Bay.
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"Climate change and the March for Science is so important for the Hayward community because our shoreline is predicted to be under water by 2050," said organizer Sally Thomas, who is also a librarian at the local public library. "The recent king tides in Jan almost flooded the interpretive center. That's a prediction of what's coming."
In Livermore, winemakers and researchers and administrators from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will speak at a rally at Livermore High School. Afterward, marchers are invited to a family-friendly science fair with hands-on STEM activities for all ages.
Megan Cohen, a former National Forest Service archaeologist who organized the interactive educational event, said she hopes to "encourage science literacy and get kids interested and excited about engineering and understanding the world through science and facts."
"Science is a huge part of what makes Livermore who we are," she said. "With the national lab here, we care a lot about science. But for people who are farther out in the East Bay, San Francisco is a long way to go."
In Walnut Creek, a march is planned for 10 a.m. at Civic Park. The event is coordinated by Women’s March Contra Costa, and is billed as a nonpartisan rally to promote the importance of scientific research and advancement.
"These are serious times that require honest and forthright conversations regardless of political party,” said speaker Ingrid Oakley-Girvan, a cancer epidemiologist and assistant professor at Stanford University. “Scientists and supporters of science have realized that we need to step up as a community that believes in evidence-based policy.
Other speakers included Dr. Andrew Gunther, Executive Coordinator of the Bay Area Ecosystems Climate Change Consortium, Claudia Polsky, Director of the Environmental Law Clinic at UC Berkeley Law, and Margo Schueler, a civil engineer and Standing Rock activist who builds and maintains the EBMUD drinking water distribution system.
