On Friday, December 6th, San Francisco students cut class to protest inaction on climate change for the second time in four months. The school strike, which was significantly smaller than the widely publicized September 20th Youth Climate Strike, began outside the downtown San Francisco headquarters of Blackrock, Inc. Blackrock is the world’s largest investor in coal companies and a major investor in companies driving the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
Protesters, led by teenage activists from the environmental groups Youth Vs. Apocalypse, Extinction Rebellion and the Sunrise Movement, marched to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office, where they demanded that she support the Green New Deal.
Speakers at the rally included Isha Clarke, age 16, one of the founders of Youth Vs. Apocalypse, and Varshini Prakash, the founder and executive director of the Sunrise Movement.
As at the September 20th strike, protesters linked environmental action to other social and political issues, a concept they call “climate justice.”
“When we live in a society with justice and equity, then we live in a society where we can have sustainability,” Clarke told the crowd.
Climate strikes took place at the same time across the United States, while countries around the world protested the week before, on Friday, November 29th.