9/25/2019 Andrew Heibeck:
Washington D.C. police arrested 26 people on Monday, September 23rd, after climate change protesters imposed a traffic jam during Monday’s morning rush hour. D.C. police noted that there were at least 15 locations where protesters built blockades, forcing commuters and downtown traffic to either be rerouted or remain in gridlock. Some protesters even chained themselves to a boat at the intersection of 16th and K street, roughly three blocks from the White House. Police were then forced to use power tools to cut the protesters free from the blockade.
This is one of hundreds of climate change strikes that have taken place across the globe, including one in Ship’s quad on Friday, September 20th. Over 150 countries were involved in the call to action on Friday. The purpose of the protests, or “strikes”, is to bring awareness to climate change and force lawmakers to act. Shut Down DC organizers asked members, or “climate rebels” to flood D.C.’s downtown area with the intention of “bringing the whole city to a gridlock standstill” according to the Washington Post.
The strike took place just hours before a United Nations summit was held at the U.N. Headquarters in New York City. The summit was geared at coming up with “real and concrete” methods for combatting climate change around the globe. According to the New York Times, approximately 60 countries claimed to have plans for achieving “net-zero” emissions by the year 2050. In addition, multiple businesses that attended the summit said they would attempt to adhere to guidelines of the Paris Agreement, a plan for sustainability that the Trump administration backed out of back in 2017.
SUTV will continue to cover this story as it progresses.
Source: Washington Post
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