More than a dozen climate activists were arrested after they blocked Fourth of July traffic on the Capital Beltway’s inner loop for more than 90 minutes Monday. The protest group Declare Emergency claimed responsibility and said they acted to demand action on climate change.

Around 12:30 p.m. Monday, the group started blocking traffic by sitting down in all lanes going eastbound on Interstate-495 near exit 30 for Colesville Road in Silver Spring.

The group, Declare Emergency, said they engaged in an act of civil disobedience to demand that President Biden declare a state of climate emergency. Their group of almost two dozen protesters came from as far away as Oregon, Florida, and Washington state, according to a press release. The blocked the highway and also held signs and playing recordings from an overpass above, according to Bethesda Beat.

Police arrested 13 of the protesters, according to the group, and the lanes reopened by 2:30 p.m.

“The world’s lack of any significant action to prevent the ravages of the impending climate catastrophe is what has led me to take this action,” Declare Emergency supporter Deborah Kushner of Staunton, Virginia said in a press release. “I choose to not be complicit in the horrible death of this amazing planet. We are far into the 11th hour. It’s time for us all to rise. We have everything to lose.”

It’s not the first time recently a climate protest has targeted the D.C. area. This time, the organizers, spurred on by the recent Supreme Court ruling limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate carbon emissions, say they are joining other groups worldwide as part of the A22 Network, a global coalition demanding climate action.

Protesters affiliated with Declare Emergency also shut down lanes of traffic on I-395 Friday, and four protestors were arrested. “We have only a few years to save humanity’s future,” one Declare Emergency protestor said in a Facebook video the group posted on Friday.

The group also shut down the Third Street tunnel earlier this year, a WTOP producer reported on Twitter.

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