If 300,000 Climate Protesters Won't Get Our Leaders to Act, What Will?

Hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of New York City today to warn the world that humans are killing the planet and insist that something has to be done to fix it before it becomes too late. Multiple outlets are reporting that over 310,000 people participated in the rally, which was organized by Bill McKibben and drew the likes of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former Vice President Al Gore and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. The march was timed to coincide with the United Nations general assembly meeting slated to start on Wednesday.

Climate scientists have been warning us for years that we are perilously close to the moment of no return, but Republicans and other climate deniers continue to shove their heads deeper into the sand when it comes to doing anything about it. Republicans in congress have done everything they possibly can to sabotage any meaningful reforms that may take us a step or two back from the brink. As if that wasn't bad enough, Republicans double down on their idiocy by demonizing clean energy initiatives, pushing projects like the Keystone Pipeline, and doing everything in their power to slash regulations to make it easy for major oil and gas corporations to pollute our planet even more.

If we don't do something soon then we may become the first species on this planet that actually caused its own demise. Animals of generations past were wiped out by things they had absolutely no control over, but we humans might actually wipe ourselves out by refusing to change our ways.

What riles me up the most is the fact that the leaders in this country are so beholden to the powerful interests that perpetuate this existential threat our world faces. Follow the trail of money and you will understand why the Republican Party refuses to do anything to tackle this problem. They will gladly take millions of dollars from these powerful interests and then do their bidding in Congress. Is it of any surprise that the energy companies spend millions of dollars a year on buying silence from Congress?

Something has to be done about this nonsense. Our leaders are asleep at the wheel while millions of people in this country are screaming for them to do something, anything, about global climate change. We can't wait for the next generation to kick them all out and actually get some things done because it may be too late by then. I just hope that some of these climate change deniers took note of the hundreds of thousands of people who marched today and ask themselves what might happen if they are wrong? How would they be able to live with themselves if they could have done something to save the planet and decided to do nothing at all instead.