WOODS HOLE — Scientists and supporters of science filled Waterfront Park in Woods Hole to overflowing on Friday to take part in a “Stand Up for Science 2025” rally — one of dozens of tandem rallies across the U.S.
Holding signs with messages that read “Science Is Vital,” “Real Science Is Not Fake News,” “Science Makes America Greater,” and “Got Measles? No? Thank Science,” the crowd stood bundled against a brisk wind and alternately cheered, booed, and clanged a cow bell during the nearly hour-long demonstration.
The event emphasized the critical role science plays in economic, social, and environmental progress, with a particular focus on the potential local and nationwide impact of federal cuts to science and technology funding.
Jim Newman, one of the rally organizers and a retired engineer, shared his personal connection to science, having spent his career working with oceanographers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and elsewhere. While many in the science community have been hesitant to speak out politically, he said, they are united in supporting science and advocating for the preservation of funding for critical research.
He and others in Falmouth who are part of an informal group of activists “all had the same reaction” to news about cuts to scientific agencies and funding coming out of the White House and agreed “we’ve got to do something.”
“So we did,” he said.
A fellow member of the group came across the Stand Up for Science movement online and suggested organizing a local event.
“We’re all sort of leaving our credentials behind, trying really hard not to make it overtly political and being positive about the value of science rather than what’s going on in D.C.,” he said.
President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk are undertaking a sweeping campaign to slash the size of the 2.3 million-strong civilian federal workforce, firing or offering buyouts so far to more than 100,000 employees, according to USA Today.
The layoffs to date have primarily been aimed at workers who have been in their current jobs for less than a year and have fewer job protections than longer-tenured staffers. But a new wave of cuts targeting career government workers has begun and will intensify after Trump ordered federal agencies on Feb. 26 to undertake large-scale layoffs.
The rally featured keynote speaker Dr. John Holdren, a former president of the Woods Hole Research Center — now the Woodwell Climate Research Center — who served as science adviser to President Barack Obama and was the Senate-confirmed director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during both Obama terms.
Holdren said Woods Hole is home to “no fewer than six science-centered institutions,” with a combined year-round staff of around 2,000 and a combined budget of more than $500 million, and that the government share of that is more than 75%. The work done there covers everything from ocean and atmospheric research, to terrestrial studies and the causes and consequences of global climate change, he said.
“The discoveries flowing from that work have greatly expanded our understanding of how the Earth works,” he said.
Holdren warned that federal cuts to key scientific agencies like the National Science Foundation, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could affect the work of local institutions such as the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the Woodwell Climate Research Center, all of which rely in varying degrees on federal support. That is in addition to NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center Woods Hole and USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, which are fully funded by the federal government, he said.
What’s at risk, Holdren said, is the “advance of science and its applications to sustainable well-being everywhere.”
Cuts, he said, could undermine critical research in health, environmental science, and national security, while also damaging local economies dependent on scientific work. While Holdren said nobody can predict “how far those cuts will go,” it’s clear that “the damage to science in Woods Hole could be large.”
Other speakers at the rally included U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Massachusetts, state Rep. Thomas Moakley, D-Falmouth, Woodwell Climate Center President and CEO Max Holmes, Cristina Roman-Vendrell of the Marine Biological Laboratory, scientist and Falmouth Selectwoman Heather Goldstone, and Mike Fogarty, a retired investigator from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.
Holmes told the crowd he had received an email from a colleague in France who expressed alarm about news from the U.S. and indicated he was attending a similar “Stand Up For Science” rally in France. Holmes admitted that he’s been feeling beaten down recently as a scientist, but he wakes up every morning determined “to do everything I can for this cause, this cause of science.”
Keating said it was “a day for the world to speak up and support science.” He told the crowd it’s not science that’s become political, but rather that “our politics is invading science right now,” because the truths it uncovers are “inconvenient” to the bottom line of large corporations, such as those that make profits off of fossil fuels.
“Science is not a divider, it is a unifier,” he said.
Moakley pointed out that Massachusetts as a whole stands up for science and proudly uplifts its scientists, engineers and educators. He encouraged those gathered to “continue to have hope for the future, because that’s how we’re going to have a future.”
Goldstone likened Woods Hole to a “microcosm” of what science can do and be, and noted that thousands of Falmouth households are supported by work in the sciences. In Woods Hole, she said, there is important work occurring that addresses many critical issues, such as coastal resilience, water quality and environmental integrity. Discoveries made in Woods Hole, she said, have had positive benefits on human health and the environment around the globe.
Heather McCarron writes about climate change, environment, energy, science and the natural world, in addition to news and features in Barnstable and Brewster. Reach her at hmccarron@capecodonline.com