On Saturday, 15,000 people formed a human line in front of the Arc de Triomphe bearing miles worth of red fabric. The final text of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Paris Accords  (UFCCC) had just been released, and protesters aimed to represent the “red lines” of warming and emissions that they intend to keep world governments from crossing. Some of those lines, scientific thresholds beyond which protesters say lies near-certain planetary destruction, made their way into the final agreement passed later that night. Many did not.

Virtually every major newspaper called the deal “historic.” The Guardian went so far as to dub it the world’s greatest diplomatic achievement. “The world finally has a framework for cooperating on climate change that’s suited to the task,” a climate expert at the Council on Foreign Relations told the New York Times.

Others were more critical. Environmental writer George Monbiot called it “a disaster.” The Grassroots Global Justice Alliance’s Cindy Weisner likens the deal to “a death warrant for the planet.” For climate scientist James Hansen, this year’s talks have been at once “bullshit” and “a fraud, really fake,” citing the negotiators’ tendency to do more talking than acting. For climate organizers set to return home this weekend, the agreement and this year’s negotiations should be a spur to something more: a challenge to engage and eventually take state power.