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  • Over the last few months, thousands of people

  • have taken to the streets of some of the world's biggest

  • cities to protest against what they see as a lack of action

  • to tackle climate change.

  • Friday, September 20, looks set to be

  • one of the biggest of these events with tens of thousands

  • of workers across the world saying they

  • will take part in what they're calling a global climate

  • strike.

  • This is posing a particular problem

  • for some of the world's biggest technology companies,

  • many of whose workers say they are concerned

  • not only about climate change but also their own employers'

  • lack of action on this front.

  • Some 1,400 Amazon employees, for example,

  • say that they are going to walk out of the company's Seattle

  • headquarters.

  • Others from Facebook, Google and from Microsoft

  • are also planning to join the protests.

  • Some technology companies have tried to get out ahead

  • of these protests by announcing their own measures to tackle

  • climate change.

  • The day before the strike, Jeff Bezos

  • announced that Amazon would be entirely powered

  • by renewable energy by 2030 and would have net zero carbon

  • emissions by 2040.

  • Google, meanwhile, has said it will

  • increase its investment in renewable energy

  • by 40 per cent.

  • Many of these pledges however do not

  • go as far as some of the employees have demanded.

  • Jeff Bezos, for example, explicitly

  • ruled out one of his employee's demands

  • which was that Amazon should stop working with oil and gas

  • companies.

  • The problem is for many of these technology companies

  • that they are no longer small startups which

  • can afford to have mission statements like "Do no evil."

  • Instead they are multinational conglomerates with shareholder

  • demands to fulfil.

  • Meanwhile they still have young, dynamic, and politically

  • aware workforces which are beginning

  • to use their muscle against their bosses' wishes.

  • The uneasy truce between these two groups of people

  • is beginning to fray.

Over the last few months, thousands of people

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