In tech 'awakening,' US workers at Google, Amazon join climate protests
Young people protest outside of the San Francisco
Hundreds ofworkersfromGoogle,Amazonand othertechnology companies on Fridayjoinedclimate-change marches in San Francisco and Seattle, saying their employers had been too slow to tackle global warming and needed to take more drastic action.
While students set the global agenda and led local marches,USWest Coasttechworkerssaid they turned out in support and called on makers of software and hardware as well as providers of services such as cloud data storage to do more.
Watch Video:The biggest climate protest till date
The marches cap a week in which Alphabet Inc'sGooglesaid it had increased its wind and solar energy deals by more than 40 per cent, andAmazon.com Incpledged to use only renewable energy by 2030.
"We're out on the streets because we want them to do more," said Danilo Quilaton, 34, a product designer forAmazon's video streaming subsidiary Twitch.
He called Thursday's pledge by his company a big win.
"Amazonpromised some things, but we still have to hold them liable," said Quilaton, who held a sign that read, "I work atAmazon. I want zero deals with oil & gas" companies.
The number of people carrying signs referring totechcompanies and shoutingtech-related slogans on the streets of San Francisco and Seattle numbered in the hundreds or low thousands, a fraction of thetechworkforce.
But their presence was bigger than in pastprotestsand represented a change in an industry whose engineers have often focussed on their work, rather than social issues.
"Amazon, let’s raise the bar, not the temperature," read one protester's sign outside the glass domes atAmazon's headquarters in Seattle known as the Spheres, local symbols of the industry's wealth.
"Techis having an awakening," saidGooglebusiness analyst Marie Collins in San Francisco.
"Techworkersare realizing they have to take collective action."
One sign with the hashtag #techwontbuildit called for zero emissions by 2030, no deals to providetechnology to oil and gas companies and zero corporate sponsorships of groupsthat denyclimatechange, echoing internal petitions at the big companies.
The coordination across various companies paralleled recentjoint efforts by staff to oppose work on military contracts, support immigrants and other issues.
Techworkersby late morningjoined youth-led marches, which filled a dozen blocks of San Francisco's Market Street.
In Seattle, hundreds oftechworkersgathered atAmazon's headquarters and marched tojoinbigger groups.
The companies have signalled sympathy withworkerson addressingclimatechange.
ButAmazonChief Executive Jeff Bezos on Thursday said it would be a bad idea to leave the cloud company's oil and gas customers with outdated tools as they are trying to evolve their businesses.
'Hold them accountable'
AnAmazonspokeswoman on Friday said the company understands that some employees feel strongly aboutclimatechange and so doesAmazon.
Google, which on Thursday announced its clean energy deals, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Though much of the public thinks oftechnology as a clean industry, unlike transportation or mainstream manufacturing, the employees said soaring electricity consumption for the data centres used in cloud computing was a major problem.
“We are the ones who build the products,” said an organizer who asked to be identified only as Steven.
“We are the ones who have the power to hold them accountable.”