Stand Up for Science rallies across the nation Friday, including on a UCSC campus
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION-TV) -- UC Santa Cruz held a rally Friday around noon as part of the nationwide Stand Up for Science movement on the heels of mass governmental layoffs.
"We have people who have been laid off from the weather service, we have people from the National Marine Fisheries Service," said Dan Costa, a distinguished professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Department at the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. "A lot of our protection for endangered species is going to go away. People who have been keeping their eyes on these systems for years are loosing their jobs for no reason."
Although Professor Costa says that he is an employee with the university and not in jeopardy of loosing his job, he expressed concern for his colleagues and those professionals on a contract basis.
"We're worried about the assault on science; the blatant disregard for anything factual and the dismal and firing of the people who have been in the system for many years," he said. "We're loosing tremendous intellectual talent and expertise that is going to be lost."
The protesters gathered at the Seymour Discovery Center (SMDC) on the Coastal Science Campus in support of science and scientific personnel in federal agencies as the movement swept across the nation Friday.
"The National Fisheries service, U.S. Geological service, the Weather service... all these people's jobs traditionally have been very secure and now they're on the chopping block," said Professor Costa. "We're loosing really important people who are doing great jobs."
He says that he hopes people in charge will reconsider the layoff decisions, pointing to how important it is for these experts to be in their roles informing the public.
"Here in California we live in a pretty special place. We have many species that are on the verge of extinction. From the sea otter to the northern elephant seal to blue whales... these animals are here because they're protected," said Professor Costa. "Those protections can go away. We need to wake up and be heard and say that these are important animals, these are important systems that need to be protected. That protection is in place and it needs to stay in place.
"We need to be heard. We're too quiet," he continued. "We need to step up and say, 'this can't continue, this is wrong.' And, we need to be smart about how we reduce government."
