Numerous employees at Amazon, Google and Microsoft plan on staging walkouts at corporate offices this Friday to call on the tech industry to drop fossil fuels.

Among the demands is an end to all contracts with the oil and gas industry on fuel extraction, which could put cloud computing providers such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft in an awkward position with their employees. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced it had entered a three-year deal with the energy companies Chevron and Schlumberger on new "petrotechnical" technologies, including oil exploration.

In response, an anonymous group of Microsoft workers have called on Redmond to cancel the deal, and all others related to the oil industry. "It is imperative that all tech companies stand together, denounce the usage of Cloud and AI services for non-renewable energy extraction, and work together to put an end to fossil fuel consumption," the group said in a statement on Wednesday.

Yesterday, a major collaboration between Microsoft, Chevron and Schlumberger, an oilfield services company, was announced. With this kind of news just 3 days before the Global #ClimateStrike, it's no longer possible for us to ignore Microsoft's complicity in the climate crisis. — Microsoft Workers 4 Good (@MsWorkers4) September 18, 2019

The upcoming protests have been gaining steam after a group of Amazon employees announced on Sept. 9 that they planned a walkout to protest the e-commerce company's alleged inaction on climate change. Over 1,500 company workers have pledged to join the walkout, which is demanding Amazon cut all carbon emissions by 2030, in addition to ending contracts with fossil fuel companies.

A separate group of 1,200 employees at Google also plan to walk out over similar demands. "Tech is not 'green.' The carbon footprint of the tech industry's data centers alone is on par with aviation," the Google workers said in a blog post, which also notes Google sells cloud computing services to oil companies to help them extract fuel reserves faster.

"We know that a liveable future requires keeping these reserves in the ground. And that by making extraction 'more efficient' Google trades our collective future for profit," the blog post adds.

Over the past week, some employees who've taken the climate action pledge have also shared notes about why they're participating in this action. We will be sharing those here???????????????????? — Google Workers for Action on Climate (@GoogleWAC) September 17, 2019

The protests are part of the Global Climate Strike, which is calling on the public to walk out of their offices, schools, and homes to demand an end to fossil fuel dependency.

Amazon told PCMag it's committed to cutting the company's carbon emissions. But so far, the e-commerce giant has made no mention of trying to drop fossil fuels entirely by 2030. (Update: On Thursday, Amazon said it's buying 100,000 electric-powered delivery vehicles as part of a newly announced goal to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040 to help stop global warming.)

According to the Microsoft workers, Redmond has been defending its contracts with the oil industry. Earlier this week, CEO Satya Nadella held a companywide all-hands meeting to suggest that the contracts can possibly help oil and gas providers develop sustainable energy alternatives. However, the protesting workers weren't convinced.

"Microsoft makes millions of dollars in profits by helping fossil fuel companies extract more oil," they said in today's statement, which notes Redmond has struck lucrative deals with other oil companies such as Exxon Mobil. "As Microsoft workers, we've been made complicit," their statement adds.

Microsoft and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Microsoft's chief environmental officer published a post on Sunday praising the upcoming Global Climate Strike while also talking up the company's commitment to environmental sustainability.

"It is why I'm so proud to say that we wholly support our employees as they join people around the world in making their voices heard," Microsoft's Lucas Joppa said in the post. "This support is in line with Microsoft's long-standing encouragement of employees to connect and participate directly with local area or global non-profits and initiatives to maximize their impact on the causes that matter most to them."

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