The first sign that progressive activists would respond to the new Trump administration by banding together came two days before the presidential inauguration, when an estimated 50,000 people participated in the People’s March in Washington, D.C., on January 18, protesting for reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and racial justice, along with other causes. Of the 453 protesters that Fisher’s team surveyed at the event, 70 percent named climate change as one of their top motivations for participating.
“All the different things we’re fighting for really are under attack,” Arpels-Josiah said. “I think we have no other option than to organize in a moment like this, right?” His organization, Fridays for Future NYC, is planning to hold a Youth Climate Justice Convergence on March 1 to discuss how to push for change in New York at the local and state level.
Climate activists expressed an appetite to try something new, but they haven’t nailed down an overall strategy for the next four years. “There’s definitely a sentiment that we’ve struggled to turn marches and mass mobilizations in one place into meaningful political change that changes people’s lives,” said Saul Levin, the director of campaigns and politics at the Green New Deal Network, a coalition of climate, labor, and justice organizations. “And so it’s not that we’re giving up on those methods, but we’re testing out different things.” Levin didn’t offer specifics about what the coalition will try out, but said he wouldn’t rule any tactics out, since there are different approaches across the movement.
In recent years, activists have blocked traffic in streets, spray-painted Stonehenge, and interrupted events to shame politicians they call “climate criminals.” These are signs that the climate movement is growing a “radical flank,” an offshoot that’s more confrontational and more disruptive. Experts say civil disobedience, even if it alienates people, can sometimes serve to focus attention on a cause and make tamer protests appear more socially acceptable. It’s not the same as establishing cause and effect, but anecdotes suggest there’s something to the idea. Two weeks after activists with Just Stop Oil spent a week blocking traffic in London in November 2022, for instance, surveys found that people in the United Kingdom were more likely to support the more moderate group Friends of the Earth, according to a study last fall.
“Climate activists will absolutely be staying peaceful, but they will not be staying non-disruptive,” Fisher said. A Trump administration hostile to action could provide more fuel for groups like Climate Defiance, whose activists frequently get arrested for confronting oil executives and politicians.
Of course, civil disobedience is just one tool among many, and activists are leaning into more popular forms of organizing, like rallies, in order to attract a big crowd. “We need everyone right now, and to build real power on climate justice, we need a bigger coalition than we’ve ever had or ever seen,” Levin said at a mass organizing call for climate groups the day after the inauguration. “And that starts by gathering people in communities to build power for people by people.” In February, the Climate Action Campaign, a coalition of environmental and health organizations, plans to hold “Climate Can’t Wait” rallies in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, hoping to “mobilize the largest possible number of people to demand action.”
