--- title: Paris Climate Conference: Talks Aren't Enough for Some description: whatever deal Paris emerges in Paris will not be enough for these activists canonical: https://time.com/4132636/activists-paris-climate-talks/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-03T17:48:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:58.983Z article:section: Science og:title: Paris Climate Talks Aren't Enough for Some Environmental Activists og:description: Protesters hope to stop the auction of federal lands for fossil fuel drilling og:url: https://time.com/4132636/activists-paris-climate-talks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt443768d464818049/698873998e06015a21463964/climate-change-protest-federal.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: climate change protest og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paris Climate Talks Aren't Enough for Some Environmental Activists twitter:description: Protesters hope to stop the auction of federal lands for fossil fuel drilling twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt443768d464818049/698873998e06015a21463964/climate-change-protest-federal.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paris Climate Talks Aren't Enough for Some Environmental Activists > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Future Proof: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Future Proof is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Making sense of the climate and energy economy. Future Proof examines the forces transforming energy and climate, and what those changes mean for business, technology, policy and the global economy. Senior correspondent Justin Worland goes beyond traditional climate coverage to connect the energy transition to the bigger decisions reshaping companies, markets and society. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: TIME Raw: Obama Discusses Climate Change and ISIS At Climate Change Summit [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Raw: Obama Discusses Climate Change and ISIS At Climate Change Summit](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/F8N2iR6W.m3u8) (1:14)  _Published 2015-12-01_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Dec 3, 2015 5:48 PM UTC  A woman holds a sign during the Global Climate March in Santiago on November 29, 2015, on the eve of the UN conference on climate change COP 21, to take place in Paris. AFP PHOTO/MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP / MARTIN BERNETTI (Photo credit should read MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images) A woman holds a sign during the Global Climate March in Santiago on November 29, 2015, on the eve of the UN conference on climate change COP 21, to take place in Paris. AFP PHOTO/MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP / MARTIN BERNETTI (Photo credit should read MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images) Martin Bernetti—AFP/Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Dec 3, 2015 5:48 PM UTC On a chilly Utah morning in November, dozens of protesters stood outside of a federal land authority field office in Salt Lake City to decry the auction of government lands for the purpose of oil and gas drilling. As demonstrators chanted “keep it in the ground”—the new rallying cry of the more liberal activists in the environmental movement—officials at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) field office postponed the auction. Now, [as negotiators from around the world gather in Paris](http://time.com/4123568/paris-climate-conference-preview/) to hammer away at what they hope will be the world’s most significant agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, activists are gearing up to fight another land auction next week, this time by rallying in Washington, D.C. Extracting fuel from thousands of additional acres of federal land would do irreversible damage to the climate, they say. World leaders in Paris are debating just how ambitious an international climate deal should be, but even the strongest accord wouldn’t come close to stopping routine drilling in the U.S. And it’s clear that whatever deal emerges in Paris will not be enough for these activists. “Paris for us occurs within a context of a growing social movement,” said protest organizer Jason Kowalski, policy director at the climate advocacy group 350.org. “If it’s wrong to wreck the climate, it’s wrong for our government to be selling these fossil fuels to industry, auctioning them off to the highest bidder.” **MORE** [Environmental Activists Prepare for Next Fight After Keystone Victory](http://time.com/4103421/keystone-pipeline-next-fight/) The victory in Utah would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, but activists have buckled down with [new resolve](http://time.com/4103421/keystone-pipeline-next-fight/) following President Obama’s decision to [reject the Keystone XL pipeline](http://time.com/4102868/president-obama-rejects-keystone-xl-pipeline/#). In his speech, Obama said, “we’re going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them.” Activists now use Obama’s statement as ammunition behind the argument that any new drilling in the U.S. amounts to hypocrisy. Obama could stop the auctions with a simple executive action, they say. Science supports activists’ position that some fossil fuels need to be left in the ground to keep global temperatures from rising by more than 2°C. The Earth may face catastrophic changes to sea levels, food supplies and weather patterns if global warming exceeds that threshold, climate scientists say. Burning of fossil fuels needs to be limited to keep warming below that threshold, but research doesn’t suggest that drilling needs to be stopped cold. Current fossil fuel reserves across the globe total three times the level that could be burned while reasonably expecting not to exceed that threshold, according to a study published last year in the journal _Nature._ In total, a third of remaining oil reserves, half of gas reserves and 80% of coal reserves should remain unused, the study found. Still, keeping some fossil fuels in the ground doesn’t mean halting all new oil and gas drilling. Climate activists acknowledge this point but argue that decisions made today will lead to drilling that may continue decades into the future. “This doesn’t mean turning the lights off tomorrow. it means an end to 30, 50 year decisions to allow drilling,” said Kowalski. A dramatic shift in direction from Obama seems unlikely, despite optimism from activists. The President has maintained consistent support for continued reliance on fossil fuels as the U.S. transitions to renewable energy sources. Even in his speech announcing the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, Obama played down the impact of that any given pipeline or drilling project on climate change. Keystone was “neither a silver bullet” nor “the express lane to climate disaster,” he said. Land auctions play a routine role in federal energy policy. BLM officials have held more than 20 auctions this year and sold the right to drill on more than 500,000 acres. Less than 5,000 acres are up for auction next week. But the auction is just a start for climate activists. “Moving forward it’s going to be very difficult for any fossil fuel project to move forward without opposition,” Benjamin Schreiber, a director at Friends of the Earth, said last month. “We have new metric: if a project worsens climate change, we shouldn’t be approving it.” **MORE** [What to Know About the Paris Climate Change Conference](http://time.com/4123568/paris-climate-conference-preview/) ## Transcript This is an economic and security imperative that we have to tackle now. I know some have asked why the world would dedicate some of our focus right now to combating climate change even as we work to protect our people and go after terrorist networks. The reason Is because this one trend, climate change, affects all trends. If we let the world keep warming as fast as it is and sea levels rising as fast as they are and weather patterns keep shifting in more unexpected ways Then before long we are going to have to devote more and more of our economic and military resources not to growing opportunity for our people but to adapting to the various consequences of a changing planet. I'm confident that we are on the winning side of this and that ultimately Russia's gonna recognize the threat that ISIL poses to its country, to its people, is the most significant, and that they need to align themselves with those of us who are fighting ISIL. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4132636/activists-paris-climate-talks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4132636/activists-paris-climate-talks/"},"headline":"Paris Climate Talks Aren't Enough for Some Environmental Activists","datePublished":"2015-12-03T17:48:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:56:58.983Z","description":"Protesters hope to stop the auction of federal lands for fossil fuel drilling","url":"https://time.com/4132636/activists-paris-climate-talks/","keywords":["climate change"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt443768d464818049/698873998e06015a21463964/climate-change-protest-federal.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt443768d464818049/698873998e06015a21463964/climate-change-protest-federal.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"climate change protest","caption":"climate change protest","creditText":"Martin Bernetti—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate-change/","name":"climate change"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4132636/activists-paris-climate-talks/","name":"Paris Climate Talks Aren't Enough for Some Environmental Activists"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Raw: Obama Discusses Climate Change and ISIS At Climate Change Summit","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/F8N2iR6W/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-01T15:59:41.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/F8N2iR6W.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4132636/activists-paris-climate-talks/","duration":"PT1M14S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4132636/activists-paris-climate-talks/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```