Cities across the Bay Area join the Climate Strike

Thousands of Bay Area students and supporters are expected to participate in Climate Strike walkouts and rallies on Friday, part of hundreds of actions happening around the world calling for urgent action on climate change.

Hundreds gathered near the intersection of Seventh and Market streets in San Francisco on Friday morning and more were still arriving. A spokesperson for Berkeley Unified School District said that 400 students walked out of Berkeley High School and took BART to the San Francisco action.

Protesters in San Francisco will march from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in downtown San Francisco to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office at 1 Post St. and then to the Federal Building at 90 Seventh St. for a rally.

Organizers for the San Francisco action said that they are calling on Pelosi and Feinstein to back the Green New Deal, an ambitious climate action plan introduced by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-New York. They are also calling on corporations like Bank of America, Amazon and PG&E to divest from the fossil fuel industry and improve their own reliance on renewable energy sources.

Students walked out of the University of California at Berkeley and a rally was planned there for 11 a.m. Walkouts and rallies are also planned in Los Altos, Oakland, Palo Alto, Richmond and in more cities across the region. Students at American High School in Fremont planned to have a lunchtime rally.

Striking students in Marin County gathered at 9 a.m. at the San Rafael City Center at 1002 4th St.

In Mill Valley students will gather downtown at 11 a.m. at Depot Plaza at 87 Throckmorton Ave.

In Sonoma County, students gathered at the Central Quad Santa Rosa Junior College at 9:30 a.m. and marched to a noon rally at Courthouse Square in downtown Santa Rosa.

Other rallies were held across the nation and world, with large rallies in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and South America. Tens of thousands participated in rallies in Berlin, London and New York. Actions are scheduled to continue through next week.