Youth Vs. Apocalypse Joins Global Day of Action for Climate March

Hundreds of Bay Area students marched across San Francisco’s Financial District on Friday, as part of a global day of demonstrations tied to the Fridays for Future youth movement.

Oakland’s Youth Vs. Apocalypse organized high schoolers and other young kids from across the region. The students walked from Embarcadero Plaza to the headquarters of the investment management company BlackRock on Howard St. and to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on Sansome St.

The protestors painted their hands red and marked the pavement to symbolize how these groups are failing to protect their lives and futures.

“The world is in a state of crisis,” organizers said in a statement. “The climate crisis threatens the sake of all life on earth. We recognize that the climate crisis does not impact people equally and disproportionately severely impacts communities of color as well as low income communities.”

“BlackRock directly funds the climate crisis and ICE is displacing and committing violence against climate refugees and people seeking safety,” they said. “We demand change now so that we can have a tomorrow.”

KQED’s María Fernanda Bernal spoke with one youth organizer, Richmond’s Kevin G. Ruano Hernandez, who said the cause is personal.

“I lost my uncle and aunt to chronic respiratory disease,” he said. “And that’s my story, [but] there’s millions of stories like it in Richmond. Thousands of stories of students affected by fossil fuels.”

The youth group called on BlackRock to divest the California state teachers pension system from the fossil fuel industry.

CalSTRS is the largest educator-only pension fund in the world.

At the ICE building, the group also rallied for a “pathway to citizenship and a respect of people’s right to seek asylum from within the U.S.” and asked “for a livable and equitable future.”