On Sunday, Nov.  29  I joined thousands in the streets of London to demonstrate our support for a comprehensive and enforced climate agreement, much stronger than the one to be discussed in international negotiations in the coming weeks. Heads of states and national delegations from around the world had arrived in Paris to negotiate emissions reduction targets but expectations are low. The former chief climate negotiator for Bolivia even said that. In that context over 2,000 events were organized around the world calling for real commitments to stopping climate change. According to organizers, some 785,000 protester were out in the streets that day. Few of us, however, marched in the city where the negotiations were taking place.

Following the attacks on Paris, the French government has prohibited protests in the streets. This was despite (or due to?) the fact that some 200,000 people, angry about the slow pace of the climate negotiations, were expected to march in the French capital. Their right to protest was stripped from them and anti-terrorist laws were used to crackdown on leftists. In the midst of hundreds of thousands being forbidden to voice their political concerns, alternatives forms of protest were developed.

A group of 130 environmental non government organizations found one creative way to circumvent the prohibition on protests. They developed the website March4Me. The site was developed to pair those who were unable to march in their country with others marching all over the world. It allowed you to register either as someone wanting to protest but unable to or as someone who could attend a protest and would sponsor someone else. The site garnered widespread media attention (from the right-wing Daily Mail to the New York Times) and its hashtag generated much discussion on social media.

While I was at the London demonstration I met with friends who were marching and sponsoring friends of theirs from France. At the same time I was communicating with friends in Paris who decided to protest despite the prohibition. They were being teargassed and attacked by the police for peacefully demonstrating.

Due to the heavy policing and the prohibition on protests, the demonstrations that did take place in Paris were significantly smaller than the estimated 200,000. So March4Me was certainly an idea that made sense. But at the same time initiatives like March4Me really put an emphasis on mass demonstrations as the key form of participation. The March4Me website states:

“On November 28 and 29, hundreds of thousands of people will join scores of marches across the globe. If you can’t make your voice heard in the country where you live, make it count somewhere else in the world. Marchers from all over the world are ready to carry your message on your behalf. Join the movement and find a climate partner.”

The statement, and many others like it, emphasizes movement participation through mass demonstrations. But to “join the movement” does not mean just attending a march. In fact, attending a march is the smallest form of participation, and is often the least effective. For a campaign that is serious about mitigating climate change we should not put the majority of our eggs in the “protest” basket.

Previously, I have written on the lack of success that demonstrations during international negotiations on climate change could have. This is because national delegations have already pretty much decided on what they’re going to bring to the table. Not much is going to be determined in these negotiations particularly because a few key countries produce a large proportion of the emissions. The United States in particular is a country that needs to be pushed to do more on the issue of climate change, but, as we have learned from the anti-war protests prior to the invasion of Iraq, international demonstrations have little influence on US decision-making.

Instead, there are alternative methods of mobilizing people to influence policy change. One method that was particularly effective in pushing through the UK’s Climate Change Act 2008 – which legislated emission reductions of 80 percent by 2050 – was to ask people to contact their representatives and ask them to sign up to support a motion for climate change legislation. As I have demonstrated in the book Climate Change and Social Movements, this had a significant impact on what the representatives did and what affect it had on the policy.

But in general, bursts of activism are not going to be enough to sway the entrenched fossil fuel industries, the short-sightedness of party politics, and “business-as usual.” The forces of climate change are established and they aren’t going to go away even if two million people made it to the streets on Sunday. And this is often true of many other issues. Protesting in the streets one day a year is simply not going to be enough – and we shouldn’t be encouraging people to think that being politically active equals protesting.

Instead, imagine if the same number of people who demonstrated on Sunday spent one hour a week publicly campaigning in a collective and coordinated way to stop climate change. We could spend time holding our governments accountable. If we feel the US is the weakest link in the negotiations we could spend time raising funds for organizations campaigning inside the United States. We could put pressure on US media outlets to properly cover the issue. The list goes one. We do not need to March4 others, but to organize together.

This does not mean that the international negotiations happening in Paris do not matter or that we shouldn’t try to influence them. But our symbolic protests at the conventions will have little impact.

If we are serious about saving the planet, we have to take our political institutions seriously. Real change will come with real work, not just by joining the annual protest.

Eugene Nulman (@eugenenulman) is a Lecturer in Sociology at Birmingham City University where he researches social movements and their outcomes. He is the author of the upcoming book Climate Change and Social Movements: Civil Society and the Development of National Climate Change Policy and is a member of the International Organization for a Participatory Society (IOPS).

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