On March 4, hundreds of former employees and contractors of the National Geographic Society and National Geographic Partners sent an open letter to you, urging you to push back against the current administration’s draconian cuts to the federal government’s science- and research-based agencies. The signers (to date more than 500, including Jane Goodall) sent that letter not just out of a deep reverence for the more than a century of invaluable work the Society and its partners have undertaken but also because the Society’s nonpartisan voice garners unrivaled respect. In short, we believed—and continue to believe—that the National Geographic’s voice of reason and rationality urgently must be heard.

And yet we—and, more important, the American public—have heard nothing. Now, on this Earth Day, we implore you to speak out against the misdirected, destructive power this administration is seizing. The world’s premier privately funded scientific organization cannot remain silent any longer, acquiescing as the world’s greatest scientists and researchers are summarily fired and organizations dismantled.

When we sent the first letter, we knew there could be a risk to the Society in speaking up and that the urge would be to hunker down and try to remain invisible. But since then, the chaos has only spread. Columbia University knuckled into submission. Some of the world’s most powerful law firms have bent the knee, offering hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal work to Trump-favored causes and pledging not to represent opponents of the Trump

agenda. And tech titans controlling huge chunks of the world’s media and wealth have begged for an audience at Mar-a-Lago.

But there’s also been significant pushback, in large measure from the nonprofit sector. Harvard has stood up, fighting the Trump administration’s efforts at censorship and control. Importantly, that venerable institution seems to have scuttled the notion that likely has been a fear for the Society and any number of other organizations: that the Trump administration can by fiat alone eliminate their lawful nonprofit status. The Harvard case makes it clear that they cannot.

Even before Harvard took its stand, Princeton was resisting, initiating what has turned into a wave of resistance from the academic community against unreasonable, and in some instances unlawful, requests to control admissions, research, even entire academic departments—to say nothing of sequestering grant funding for important scientific endeavors.

Meanwhile, nonprofits such as the ACLU were bringing—and winning—cases in federal courts. Remarkably, even some of those initially compliant law firms have come to realize that important history is being written and that they need to resist the Trump administration. And now, even some Republicans, such as Lisa Murkowski, are finding their voice. These positive developments notwithstanding, the cuts continue. This is why it’s so important for the Society to speak up. NASA is to be cut in half. NIH is being gutted. The EPA’s research office is gone. The National Climate Assessment—gone. The National Science Foundation has been cut in half, with 10,000 research grants wiped out. The list goes on and on and on...Silence cannot be an option anymore. History is being written. Reputations are being made or broken.

On April 20, as you may have noted, our own Terry Garcia wrote a forceful opinion piece in the Guardian, advocating for strong resistance to cuts in the

scientific community. National Geographic must take its rightful place to uphold the science-based culture our country has built over more than a century. In the face of climate change and other pressing global challenges, U.S. federally funded science emphatically must be a top priority. It is the very foundation of our prosperous and healthful future.

At this disturbing moment, the National Geographic Society has an unexpected opportunity to reap benefits from doing the right thing. A strong moral stand can grow support for the institution, especially among young people, helping to reinvigorate the brand and build new loyalty and commitment. By speaking out, the Society can build bridges and new partnerships with powerful and recognizable entities—the Harvards, Princetons, and other national nonprofit leaders. National Geographic stands to gain credibility and clout by joining with others in this vital resistance.