Karachi's climate marches need a bigger tent

Karachi has seen four climate marches in recent years that reportedly drew a thousand or more participants each, with organisers now escalating claims to five thousand attendees. In a city of twenty million officially declared residents, gathering even five thousand amounts to little more than a drop in the ocean. If the climate movement in Pakistan's largest metropolis cannot fill a neighborhood park, it is time to ask whether the problem lies with an apathetic public or with messengers who have failed to inspire them. The numbers do not lie, and neither should the organisers. The question is necessary.

The standard excuse from civil society organisers is now entirely predictable. They blame public unawareness, anxieties over law and order, chronic joblessness, and the perpetual power crisis for poor turnout. These are real challenges, but they are also convenient shields behind which organizers hide their own failures. Awareness theories have long established a humbling truth: if you cannot create a pathway to convince people, the failure rests on your own shoulders. You either cannot communicate, influence, or earn followers. Karachi's climate activists, especially its self-appointed leaders, seem to struggle most with the third factor. This is not a minor shortcoming. It is the fatal flaw that keeps their marches small and their impact smaller.

My own interactions with this tight circle support this observation in disappointing ways. Despite three decades of public awareness work, I was met not with welcome but with ridicule when I approached them. The reason? I associated with an organisation they apparently despise in public, even as they cozy up to that same organisation's top leadership in private. This petty inconsistency does more than bruise egos. It actively repels newcomers and ensures climate marches remain the preserve of a tiny, self-referential club. When sincere contributors are mocked rather than embraced, it is no mystery why participation stays low. A movement that eats its own young never grows old enough to matter.

The remedy begins with a change of heart. Organisers must mature enough to understand that everyone walks a different path. No one holds the authority to issue sweeping decrees against another person's choices or affiliations. If they insist on such judgmental behavior, reciprocation is inevitable, and the movement will continue to bleed support. A broader heart is not weakness; it is the minimum requirement for anyone claiming to lead a cause that represents a city of twenty million souls. You cannot build a mass movement with a closed-circle approach. Tolerance is the first currency of leadership.

They must also break out of their shell. The current pool of a few thousand participants, almost all directly or indirectly connected within the same closed network, is not a mass movement. It is a social gathering with banners. A genuine public contact campaign is needed, one that reaches beyond the echo chambers of civil society and into markets, factories, universities and working-class neighborhoods where the real Karachi lives. The goal should be to bring more people into the fold, not merely to preach to the already converted. Expansion requires outreach, not another round of self-congratulation among the same a few thousand names. Reach out relentlessly.

Equally important is the tone of the march itself. Instead of becoming judgmental against any sector, whether government, political parties, or individuals with different leanings, organisers should invite everyone and keep the mood acceptable to all. A climate march that feels like an opposition rally will alienate half the city before the first speech. Climate change is not a partisan issue when floods do not check your party affiliation before entering your home and heatwaves do not spare voters alike. The tent must be big enough to hold the whole city, or it is merely a cubbyhole with a loudspeaker.

Then there is the messaging, which has grown stale. Organisers haul out the same old banners attacking specific greenhouse gas emitting projects at every march, as if repetition will convince the unconvinced. It is past time to retire these worn-out props and spend a few thousand rupees on fresh messaging that strikes at root causes. Fossil fuels remain unchecked, renewables unsupported, adaptation unfunded, and climate justice ignored. These are the battles that matter, deserving fresh banners, not recycled props from marches past. If the message looks recycled, the crowd will assume the commitment is too.

Organisers must think in two phases. First, take everyone on board instead of following an insular and exclusive approach that treats outsiders with suspicion. Once numbers grow and the movement represents a cross-section of Karachi rather than a single social circle, only then can the second phase begin. That phase involves influencing participants to adopt a stricter approach to saving our country, province, and city from climate change impacts while tackling root causes together. Build the crowd first, then the conviction. Reversing the order builds only resentment.

If they persist with the previous approach, the result is predictable. A few hundred people will show up, outsiders will count roughly a thousand, and organisers, fearing criticism over disappointing turnout, will inflate the figure to ten thousand. That is not activism. That is self-deception before empty streets. Karachi deserves a climate movement that measures strength in genuine supporters, not in exaggerated headcounts, recycled banners, and hollow claims that collapse under scrutiny. Until that honesty arrives, the marches will remain what they have always been: well-intentioned noise that the city learns to tune out.