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.