Scientists: Trump's cuts could destroy the shore

Bob Chant couldn’t help but admire the sign. It was a play on Donald Trump’s most infamous phrase, and it stood out amid a sea of protesters during last weekend’s March for Science in Washington, D.C.

“Grab them by the hypothesis.”

Shocked into action by the president’s push to slash funding for health and environmental research, Chant and other scientists are fighting back.

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“The U.S. has been a world leader in science, certainly for the last 50 years,” said Chant, an expert on coastal systems who is based at Rutgers University. “There’s been this incredible investment, and to see the skinny budget come out with these huge cuts to science, for what, to build a wall? It’s totally absurd.”

So what are they going to do about it? The March for Science, which can be seen in the video above, was a start — but only a start.

“We can’t just hide in our labs or in front of our computers and think that it’s going to be OK,” Chant said. “Our money comes from the public, so we owe the public an explanation of what we do.”

Here’s a little rundown of what New Jerseyans stand to lose — and how scientists can get the point across.

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Want to prevent widespread devastation by the next superstorm? Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute has an idea.

“We’re working with communities along the shore to post signs on the maximum height of the water that came in during superstorm Sandy,” said Steven Bachrach, dean of Monmouth’s School of Science. “It’s to remind people of the impact of these kind of storms, to get people to think about, should we rebuild here? What sort of protective measures should we be taking?”

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To that end, the Urban Coast Institute leads vital projects like dune and wetlands restoration. The most important work, though, is on skeptics’ heads.

“We know what the root causes are for climate change and we know that they’re real,” said Bachrach, who attended the March for Science in New York City with three colleagues from Monmouth. “Having to debate that, for us, is having to debate gravity all over again.”

Step away from the microscope

Rutgers has an idea, too: connecting environmental science graduate students with those living in harm’s way along Jersey’s coast. It's a way to open dialogue about problems and solutions.

“We’ve experienced a foot of sea-level rise in New Jersey in the last century. The (current rate) could be twice as fast,” said Bob Kopp, a Rutgers climate-change expert who is involved in the outreach. “How do we get this into zoning decisions? What are the implications for flood risk?”

Kopp attended the March for Science in D.C.

“This is not an easy topic to put into a soundbite,” he said.

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Well, advocates for science have to figure that out. Soundbites work. Trump got elected with the help of simple catchphrases that hit home with people.

“That’s something I plan on raising as an initiative here at the School of Science,” Monmouth’s Bachrach said. “What sort of non-scientific content do we need to bring into our curriculum? Communication may be the top thing on our list. We need to think about how we get scientists to communicate better.”

Connecting the dots

Take Chant’s expertise, for example. He studies estuaries. Sounds boring, until you hear the implications in plain English.

Rivers like the Delaware and Hudson supply drinking water to millions of people. How do we cope with seawater infiltrating them as the climate warms? How do we prevent contamination from sewage as populations boom? These things require research, which requires funding.

A related issue: Bays and harbors don’t automatically stay clean. Their health requires vigilance, and the stakes are high.

“New York Harbor used to be dead,” Chant said. “It always struck me how the shoreline in New York was basically abandoned. They’ve improved it tremendously with a combination of politics and science.”

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As the water came back to life, so did the waterfronts of places like Jersey City and Hoboken.

“That’s not unrelated,” Chant said. “There’s a huge economic benefit of having clean water.”

It’s time to connect those dots for the public. Trump is a master at messaging, but two can play that game. In D.C., Chant saw another Trump-riff protest sign that made him chuckle — and illuminated the point.

“Science is huge, trust me.”

Carino’s Corner appears Mondays in the Asbury Park Press. Contact Jerry at jcarino@gannettnj.com.