In the mid 1950's a professor at the University of California San Diego lobbied for regular CO2 samplings as part of the Geophysical Year of 1957 -1958. Roughly a decade later he published the results of his and his colleague's results confirming his suspicions of rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere which, since the 60's, have only been increasing more rapidly. At the time, the concept of global warming was novel - and to some, ridiculous. Up until that point  the majority of the population did not believe humanity could have a lasting impact on the environment. Even after the results were published many still didn't. Coming to terms with the possibility that humans and their actions could be irrevocably harming the planet was too hard to admit for both the public and those in power. So they didn't.

Now, more than 50 years later, the change in climate has gone from a problem, to a crisis. Still though, people - especially those with political power - are turning their backs to the biggest emergency in human history. If they were to admit this crisis, they would have no alternative but to acknowledge the mess they have left to the next generation and with too much pride to admit their mistakes, they have taken to ignoring the problem altogether.

For the last five decades our leaders have done nothing but worsen and ignore the crisis staring them in the face. We can expect it to be no different for the next decade. We do not have time to spare waiting for our presidents, prime ministers, and politicians to accept the climate crisis; ignoring this problem or expecting someone else to solve it will do nothing to fix it. The responsibility of our planet and our future is up to those of this generation willing to stand up to the global crisis.

Last year, Greta Thunberg of Sweden began to accept this responsibility by sitting in front of the Swedish parliament and initiating a global movement protesting the actions - and inaction - of our world leaders. Since then, marches - most recently on March 15th of 6.1 million children globally, have taken place; and yet the United States of America, undoubtably the leading consumer of resources and foremost in the destruction of our environment -  has remained, for the most part, inactive. There are some who make up an exception, such as Kallan Benson of Maryland and Alexandra Villaseñor of New York, among others. However, the reception of the climate strike movement in America has been far more subdued than its acceptance in Europe. It is the responsibility of the American youth as a whole to fight the declining state of the environment if we are to have any hope for our futures and the future generations.

If any doubt remains in anyone's mind about the urgency of our climate's downward spiral, and this, perhaps, is preventing America's youth from protesting for climate justice, a few choice things to note would be: the 50% of rainforest destroyed since humans began logging it, the identification of synthetic microfibers in the most remote locations of our oceans, the permafrost thawing causing the release of enormous methane bubbles which increase the rate of global warming exponentially faster than previous estimations, the strip mining of topsoil that can't be regained for hundreds to thousands of years, and the startling decline of species at more than 100 extinctions per day. As all of these examples illustrate, it is no longer possible to ignore or deny this crisis. We have eleven years to rectify our mistakes and reverse  our ever increasing path of destruction before our human actions are irreversible. We can not rely on our politicians to redirect the course of humanity when this crisis has been ignored for so long. We as a species have a countdown for our climate, so I demand anyone and everyone to participate in this international movement for our planet while we still have time.