The biggest California rallies are planned for San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. But Hari says he expects a good turnout for smaller local marches including those in Northern California planned for Modesto, Redding and Hayward.
”I’m personally more excited about the marches in smaller towns— something really special about those,” says Hari.
The Silicon Valley event in San Jose is expected one of the best attended in the Bay Area, partly because the march ends ends where Silicon Valley Comic Con is hosting a free outdoor festival, complete with costumed astronauts, mad scientists and aliens.
Three of the Biggest Bay Area Marches:
1. San Francisco
11:00 a.m. Rally at Justin Herman Plaza
The rally starts at Justin Herman Plaza across from the Ferry Building where several speakers will talk before the march moves down Market Street and ends at Civic Center. Adam Savage, the host of Mythbusters and DJ Patil, the former U.S. Chief Data Scientist under Obama, are both scheduled to speak.
2. San Jose
11:00 a.m. March from San Jose City Hall
The march begins at city hall and travels down 4th Street to San Fernando, then ends at Plaza de Cesar Chavez. There Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik, who also has a neuroscience PhD, will speak alongside Kimberly Bryant, the founder of Black Girls Code and chemist William Moerner who is a Nobel Laureate. The rally will share space with the annual Silicon Valley Comic Con’s outdoor festival.
3. Sacramento
10:00 a.m. March from South Side Park
For the first two hours there will be musical performances and a protest song sing-along at the park’s amphitheater before the march moves toward the Capitol at noon. At the Capitol there will be music and an interactive, all-ages science exploration zone at 9th and N Street. Speakers include Anthony Barnosky,Executive Director of Stanford’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve and Elizabeth Patterson, Mayor of the City of Benicia.
Local Science Marches Have Grassroots Ethos
Organizers are hoping for an unprecedented turnout by scientists on Saturday. They’re also expecting people from all walks of life to participate in protest of the administration’s plans to roll back environmental protections and undercut climate change science. On the first Earth Day almost 50 years ago this spring, some twenty million people marched in events around the country.
Nina Haft, a dance professor at California State University East Bay who lives in Hayward says she plans to participate in the Hayward Shoreline March with some of her students.
“With the current presidential administration being so hostile and antagonistic toward the EPA, I’m very concerned as a citizen of the planet that our environment will be so degraded that it won’t matter who gets elected after this,” says Hart.