Climate change activists gathered in New York City for the People's Climate March on Sept. 21, 2014. Image credit: Emma Passy
The cloud of thick exhaust rising from one of the many parked Greyhound buses would be a familiar scene to many New Yorkers. The amount of people waiting in line for their ride back home also wouldn’t be a surprise. However, last Sunday, it was definitely a different picture; one might even call it every eco-friendly hippie’s nightmare.
What made that line for the fossil fuel-guzzling coach buses worse than usual was the fact that protesters from the People’s Climate March were the ones in it. These were some of the same protestors who lined up to eat at the hot dog stands at the end of every block. (I can almost guarantee you there were no Tofurky hot dogs on the menu.)
Don’t get me wrong. It was a fun event, and in that massive crowd of 300,000 people, there were definitely individuals solely there to raise awareness about what has been happening to our planet. I would like to think I was one of those participants. But all in all, it was shocking to see the amount of people that were there only to have a good time with their friends, dance to the beat of the drums being played and enjoy a nice, long bus ride. And to capture the whole thing on their phones, of course.
Why might this be a problem? It shows that even at an event like the People’s Climate March, some people can’t take climate change seriously. And needless to say, that’s a problem, since if the human population keeps up its dependence on fossil fuels, the carbon emissions in the air could result in the destruction of Earth.
But it’s hard to say if even the people who were all-in as they shouted “Hey Obama, we don’t want no climate drama!” really helped make a difference. Did the march leave enough of an impression on the government to reduce the damage we are doing to our own planet? Or was it just another event for the sake of having an event?
Of course, with the amount of social media today, maybe awareness is all we need to help fight certain problems. Think of the millions of dollars raised for Lou Gehrig’s disease because of the Ice Bucket Challenge. Maybe when people saw all those pictures from the march on Instagram, they were persuaded to turn off the lights, install solar panels on their rooftops or make other changes to preserve the environment.
But seeing all of the fossil fuel-guzzling buses and the litter left by participants, something tells me this march will not make a difference in the fight against climate change.
Emma Passy is a high school student in New York City.
