Climate Change Demonstrators Block Streets In San Francisco Financial District
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A number of protesters have been arrested during a demonstration against climate change which blocked streets and buildings in San Francisco's Financial District Wednesday morning.
At least seven demonstrators were arrested for blocking the entrance to a Wells Fargo bank branch according to witnesses on the scene.
Demonstrators holding banners blocked California St. between Kearny and Sansome streets, along with Montgomery and Sansome between Sacramento and Pine streets.
The activists painted murals on the blocked streets denouncing the fossil fuel industry and calling for action on climate change.
Activist groups remained protesting and blocking the streets until 5 p.m.
"I'm out here because we have a climate emergency and a lot of these banks are responsible for investing in fossil fuels," said climate striker Tyler Brown.
In New York, California Governor Gavin Newsom took the climate fight from the ground to the air, announcing a partnership with Bloomberg and San Francisco-based Planet Labs to monitor climate change from the sky.
"You can't manage what you can't measure--so here at Planet we are working on building earth observation satellites that really help us understand global change," said Tara O'Shea of Planet.
The company's 155 satellites, both large and toaster oven-sized, are taking a full image of the earth every day, at the rate of 3 meters per pixel. That data will be funneled into the California Forest Observatory.
"We're actually going to take that daily data coming down from space and map wildfire risk across the state," O'Shea said.
The demonstration comes on the same day a new, United Nations-backed report on climate change was released. The report paints a grim picture of the world's warming climate approaching tipping points where some of the more severe consequences of climate change can no longer be avoided.
Last week, San Francisco was among the cities worldwide where tens of thousands of students and their supporters held "Climate Strike" demonstrations.
