Scientists come out in huge numbers in Washington to protest against Trump's slash in research budget

Image courtesy: @True_Irish_Owl/Twitter

New Delhi: US President Donald Trump's proposal of administering cutbacks in the budget for scientific research did not go down well with scientists, which caused them to join hands and hit the streets of Washington in protest.

On Earth Day, April 22, scientists from around the US, most of them wearing lab coats and bearing protest signs gathered at the Washington Monument to express their objections.

The protest on Saturday, dubbed the March for Science and coinciding with Earth Day, is being held in more than 500 cities around the world, but all eyes are on Washington, where the organisers hoped to attract as many as 75,000 people, Efe news reported.

While hundreds of people were lining up to join the march, dozens of volunteers were handing out signs with the official slogan of the protest: "Science, not Silence".

The organisers had insisted that the march should not be an anti-Trump event but rather a reminder of the important role science should play in society and in the political debate so that those in power can take sensible decisions based on "facts" and not "alternative facts".

Marchers held signs with slogans that read – "Science should be shared not censored", "Rise up before the waters do", "Dinosaurs didn't believe in climate change either", "stop the war on facts", "Denial is not a policy", and "we're not just resistors, we are transformers", etc.

Other US cities like New York and Chicago also rolled out events in support of the March for Science.

The protest was held to “push back against a political climate that has become increasingly hostile toward sound, evidence-based science and its value to society.”

Check out some of the photographs of the protest shared by people on Twitter below:

Scientists & allies as far as the eye can see at the #MarchForScience in #StL.#ScienceMarch pic.twitter.com/3JeavNt0gW — Heather (@MissJupiter1957) April 23, 2017

Dear @realDonaldTrump & @GOP,

Look how people care more about truth & facts than your lies. #MarchForSciencepic.twitter.com/hLvtT6Hxii — Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) April 22, 2017

We may live in the age of "fake news" and "alternative facts".
But today, truth fought back.#MarchForScience pic.twitter.com/RcqBPUe4Aq — Mike Gibbs (@Mikeggibbs) April 22, 2017

Thanks to our ASL interpreter! #marchforscience pic.twitter.com/ita9UevkAl

— MarchForScience SLC (@ScienceMarchSLC) April 22, 2017

A group of scientists partipate in the #marchforscience at Wake Atoll under water! pic.twitter.com/taz7oJw3Rc — Science March Hawaii (@ScienceMarchHI) April 22, 2017

(With IANS inputs)