Activists demanding a greater global response to climate change disrupted Monday morning commutes with protests in Washington, D.C.
Ahead of the day’s United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York, activists participated in “Shut Down D.C.,” a coordinated act of civil disobedience designed to draw attention to the global climate crisis. A press release from the event’s organizers said that Monday’s protesters included labor organizations, the anti-war group Code Pink, Black Lives Matter and the environmental justice organization Rising Tide North America.
The organizers said their goal was to “shut down the center of decision-making in the U.S. to demand the government immediately ends fossil fuel production, and enforces a swift and just transition to renewable energy.”
Among their demands were the passage of the Green New Deal, additional measures to protect indigenous people’s land and a broad push toward climate justice.
Pictures and videos posted to social media on Monday morning showed protesters halting traffic at a number of Washington intersections. D.C. police identified 14 locations that were blocked at some point, according to The Washington Post.
Monday’s protests come on the heels of a worldwide “climate strike” on Friday, a series of protests in multiple countries that some called the “largest climate rally ever.”