Hundreds, if not over a thousand, of Bay Area middle school and high school students walked out of class Friday and showed up for a "Youth vs. Apocalypse" climate protest on Market Street in San Francisco.

Starting with a rally at the Federal Building on Seventh Street, the march briefly halted traffic on Market Street starting around 10:30 a.m. as it moved toward Union Square for a second rally. (The starting and ending points were meant to be the local offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Dianne Feinstein.)

As NBC Bay Area reports, and as seen on social media, the students carried signs that said "Green New Deal Now" and "Youth vs. Apocalypse," calling on lawmakers to take drastic action to halt the man-made contributors to climate change.

The protest is part of a global Youth Climate Strike, and as CNN reports, thousands of schoolchildren have been clogging streets across the US, Europe, and South Asia today.

15-year-old San Francisco high school student Hannah Estrada tells CBS SF, "Scientists have repeatedly told us we need to act on it. No one seems to want to fight for my future. If no one wants to fight for me, I’m going to have to fight for myself."

Says a statement on the Youth Climate Strike website, "We, the youth of America, are striking because decades of inaction has left us with just 11 years to change the trajectory of the worst effects of climate change, according to the October 2018 UN IPCC Report. We are striking because our world leaders have yet to acknowledge, prioritize or properly address our climate crisis."

Photo: Pete Kane/Facebook