They rallied for 350 in Times Square, they waved banners of 350 from the highest peak in Antarctica, they dove with posters of 350 in the Great Barrier Reef, they posed with 350 signs in front of the pyramids in Egypt and (drum roll, please) they called for 350 right here at ASU.

This weekend ASU students joined forces with climate activists, ascending “A” Mountain to paint the “A” green, forming a human shape of the number 350, and proceeding to protest for 350 at the state Capitol.

What was this worldwide exclamation of 350? According to 350.org, the group that organized this worldwide day of activism, 350 parts per million is the highest concentration of CO2 the atmosphere can tolerate without posing the threat of climate change that will be damaging to life on Earth. Unfortunately, we are already at 390 parts per million according to 350.org, and one of the goals of sustainability activism is to bring us back down to 350 parts per million.

Saturday’s events were all about visibility for the cause. The wide-scale demonstrations showed that citizens all over the world feel the sense of urgency in the need to combat climate change. More than 5,000 such demonstrations took place on the same day in more than 180 countries, according to 350.org.

“We had a lot of community members in addition to ASU students, and all the photos were sent to Times Square and put up on the screen there,” said Kim Pearson, an ASU student and sustainability activist, about Saturday’s events.

The magnitude of these events was so important because, let’s face it, ordinary citizens can try to fight climate change in small ways, but the only real way to create change for the future is through changes in policy. Whether we drive SUV’s or use public transportation, develop renewable energy or continue to generate our electricity from coal, whether we buy big cars or little cars or hybrid cars all depends on what’s expensive and what’s cheap.

Steve Kretzmann, of the Institute for Policy Studies, said, “Solar, wind, efficiency, these things get about [$]12 billion on an annual basis, as compared again to $70 [billion] for fossil fuels. So that’s a really imbalanced energy market.” In other words, we have continued to rely on fossil fuels because fossil fuels have been profitable.

However, as Kretzmann also points out, “It’s time to start using our public money to encourage the energy of the future, not the energy of the past.”

And that’s what I think the message of 350 day really is: Citizens are pushing for changes in the way our government approaches climate challenges. The 350 day was the largest-scale demonstration against climate change in Earth’s history, was covered by all the major news networks and will hopefully put more pressure on our governments to create the right policies.

“It was amazing to be part of such a diverse array of people internationally working toward a common goal. It took lots of effort, and we’re all really proud of what we accomplished,” Pearson said.

The sheer number of people getting creative about their passion and concern for the future of our planet is truly inspiring. I would like to extend a heartfelt “great job” to the Green Team, Students of Arizona Network for Sustainability and Greenpeace for organizing ASU’s own 350 action this weekend.

Reach Hannah at hannah.wasserman@asu.edu.