When the French Government announced that in response to terror attacks they would prohibit the long planned Global March For Climate in Paris during the climate talks, stunned citizens around the world who had planned to participate in Paris have scrambled to create other options to pressure leaders to create real solutions rather than pandering to the fossil fuel companies who are part to the talks.

Some, already in Paris, decided to go ahead with protests, and now { hat tip to

Occupy Santa Fe FB pagefor this news from The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/27/paris-climate-activis...
Paris climate activists put under house arrest using emergency laws

French police arrest activists for flouting ban on organising protests during climate talks next week

OP 21: UN climate change conference | Paris
SNIP

The author and climate change campaigner, Naomi Klein, accused French authorities of “a gross abuse of power that risks turning the summit into a farce”.

“Climate summits are not photo opportunities to boost the popularity of politicians,” she told the Guardian. “Given the stakes of the climate crisis, they are by their nature highly contested. That is democracy, messy as it may be. The French government, under cover of anti-terrorism laws, seems to be trying to avoid this, shamefully banning peaceful demonstrations and using emergency powers to pre-emptively detain key activists.”

Preventing Terror or Suppressing Dissent

Activists have pointed to the holes in the move by the French Government, citing the fact large groups of people are still being allowed to meet at football games and other activities while this long planned action was being prohibited.

Thousands of climate campaigners, including high-profile Indian activist Vandana Shiva, have vowed to defy the blanket ban on demonstrations. One protest on Sunday will be protected by a ‘human chain’, while a day of civil disobedience will take place when the summit ends on 12 December, dubbed as ‘red lines’ day.

Numbers are expected to be smaller than previously hoped, but artists have been working around the clock on creations such as a series of ‘inflatable cobble stones’, alluding to a famous slogan from the May 1968 protests: Beneath the cobble stones the beach.

Some protesters argue that the permission granted to football matches, trade fairs and Christmas markets in Paris over the summit period suggests that the authorities’ real concern is to suppress dissent.

Wrong Decision

Since the recent attacks Global Climate March activists had been consulting and having back and forth with police, at one pointrejecting an offer to let them stay in one place and limiting crowd size but this was refused.

Think Progress

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/11/19/3723993/paris-climate-protes...

Organizers for 350.org, an activist group that has been closely involved in the planning of the mobilizations, expressed disappointment at the government’s decision, calling it “incongruent.”

“We do think it’s the wrong decision,” Eros Sana, France’s senior communications director for 350.org, told ThinkProgress. “The French officials are asking the population to go out in the quartiers, to drink wine, to go to work, because we cannot surrender to terrorists threats, and at the same time, they don’t allow demonstrations and marches in the streets.”

We respect the decision of the state, but we are trying to find ways to keep on mobilizing and taking the streets in one way or another

Creative ways of expression are also being sought to stay within the current policy.

Some of those are covered here.

In addition, around the planet the Global Climate March is going on in earnest. To see some of the amazing creative ways people are participating, and to find out ways you yourself can in an area near you, check out http://globalclimatemarch.org/en/

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350.org Facebook Page is showcasing video of wonderful happenings pouring out around the globe!

Loved this one from Greenpeace Philippines