This Saturday, for those of you who don't know, there will be thousands of demonstrations across the globe to highlight 350ppm as the maximum level of Carbon in our atmosphere that will hopefully allow us to avoid the more dire predictions of climate change scientists. TckTckTck.org and 350.org have partnered to organize what may be the largest global day of action since the Iraq War, or with luck, even larger.

I will certainly be in attendance and I strongly encourage everyone to attend as well, you can find a demonstration near you here. Spending time outdoors with your community is fun, standing in solidarity for an just cause is empowering and the world needs to see itself committed like never before. 350.org's website describes the "symbolic action" as a "gigantic, global, visual petition" and argues that "The thousands of events on October 24 will drive 350 and all that it represents into the human imagination, and change the negotiating environment as we head towards the crucial UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen in December of 2009."

However, I know if you're like me, you might be wondering whether or not this Saturday will really have an impact. 350 is a number, an important one, but only a number which is easy to support and rather hard to grasp in anything other than the abstract. What and who are our targets? How are they preventing sensible legislation in Copenhagen? In our own countries? Getting millions of people out on the streets for a number seems like a very soft-touch approach, ironic in light of the leading organizer's name TckTckTck, implying that we can't wait any longer.

Changing the negotiating environment and building global solidarity for political action based scientific consensus are critically important, don't get me wrong, there will be no success without them, but the recipe for successfully addressing climate change requires 1. Strong political leadership and legislation 2. Robust local economies and sustainably-minded corporations 3. Environmentally conscious citizen/consumers willing to put their votes and money where their mouth is. While we each can and must do our part--like showing up on Saturday--it's clear that without strong political will, we won't be able to successfully prevent runaway climate change.

This Saturday is far from our only dramatic climate demonstration, a few weeks ago 25 Greenpeace activists climbed atop the British Parliament building protesting climate change inaction, yet it resulted in a parlimentary conversation not about climate change but about the building's security. This week my heroes, the Yes Men took, the stage twice to make poignant and targeted statements about climate change, first to the US Chamber of Commerce and then to Senator Arlen Spector, still it's hard to see that either one had much of an impact.

On that note, to return to the globally coordinated Iraq War protests I mentioned earlier... it is hard to see that solidarity achieved anything. Granted those scumbags are all mostly out of office but our troops and corporations are still in Iraq many years later. Why they didn't work? I'm still not sure, I tend to think we've got politicians who're practiced in ignoring public demonstrations. We need teeth in our action and a way to enforce the millions of voices we will hear on Saturday. How do we insure that Saturday will be more than a global picnic about a number?

Is it just a volume game as in, if we somehow get 'enough' people out on Saturday everything will change? Do we turn to civil disobedience? I've never been convinced that smashing store windows and shutting down intersections does much of anything other than set up false conflicts within communities. Do we have a strike or walk-out on a national or international level? Our country and many others don't have enough jobs as it is and I'm not sure risking the ones we have left is the best idea. Do we orchestrate massive global boycotts, bringing negligent companies to their knees one by one? Do we have the coordination and willpower necessary for this? Do we go positive, insuring the stunning success of the sustainable companies that work with us by Carrotmobbing them?

What do you think?