Thousands of Tech Workers Join Global Climate Change Strike

Thousands of workers from Amazon, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Square, and other tech companies are expected to walk out today as part of a worldwide climate change strike led by 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg. After Amazon workers announced they were joining the demonstration last week, employees from other Silicon Valley firms began joining in. The same group of Amazon employees have been pushing the company to reduce its carbon footprint for nearly a year. Now, over 1,700 of them and counting have said they will join Friday’s walkout, which is expected to draw millions of participants in cities around the world.

Swedish teenager, Greta Thunburg, marches with tech workers in the U.S.

The tech workers participating in the strike are part of a wider wave of employee activism that has spread across Silicon Valley over the past year. Many of those demonstrations concerned workplace issues at individual companies, such as sexual harassment or controversial government contracts. Friday's walkout represents a broader coalition across different corporations, focused on an issue facing the entire planet. Many of these employees make up one of the more privileged and highly visible labor forces in the world, working for innovative and resource-rich companies. If their efforts on climate change keep gaining momentum, they may have a significant impact, especially as the Trump administration continues to roll back environmental initiatives.

Read the story from Wired by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP -  “Thousands of Tech Workers Join Global Climate Change Strike.”

Russian trolls sought to inflame debate over climate change

Washington: Russian trolls used Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to inflame US political debate over energy policy and climate change, a finding that underscores how the Russian campaign of social media manipulation went beyond the 2016 president election, congressional investigators reported on Thursday.

Military veterans huddle together to hold a United States flag
against strong winds during a march to a closed bridge outside
the Oceti Sakowin camp to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline
 in Cannon Ball, ND.

The new report from the House Science, Space and Technology Committee includes previously unreleased social media posts that Russians created on such contentious political issues as the Dakota Access Pipeline, government efforts to curb global warming and hydraulic fracturing, a gas mining technique often called “fracking."

One Facebook post created by a Russian-controlled group called "Native Americans United" shows what appears to be a young girl in a braid peering out over an unspoiled prairie. "Love Water Not Oil, Protect Our Mother, Stand With Standing Rock," a reference to an Indian tribe that opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline. The post also said, "No Pipelines. No Fracking. No Tar Sands.”

Read the story in today’s Age - “Russian trolls sought to inflame debate over climate change.”

Promoting solutions and empowering people to act

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aunched by the World Bank and the Italian Ministry of Environment, Connect4Climate (C4C) is a global community that takes on climate change by promoting solutions and empowering people to act.

The Connect4Climate community connects more than 200 partners around the world including civil society groups, media networks, international organizations, academic institutions, youth groups, and the private sector.

Connect4Climate interacts with a global audience of more than a million individuals who participate on C4C's social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube, Flickr, and Instagram.

Learn more about the project here - “Connect4Climate is connecting to take on climate change.”