DECLARE EMERGENCY STATEMENT

Regarding; July 4, 2022 Nonviolent Civil Resistance Action Silver Spring MD Inner Loop Beltway

On July 4th Declare Emergency blocked the Silver Spring, MD inner loop beltway to demand that President Biden declare a climate emergency; use his emergency executive powers to stop the climate crisis, and end all fossil fuel extraction on federal and indigenous land. All four lanes of the highway were blocked, except for the exit lane from the highway, which remained open. During that action one particularly agitated motorist, tried to convince the people blocking the road to open one lane to allow some traffic to pass. He explained that he was on parole and might be returned to prison if he was late for work. We want you to know that a supporter of Declare Emergency offered to take a photo of him at the roadblock to show to his boss and parole officer. He declined the offer.

We would like to contact this person to see if he had any problems with his job because of our roadblock, and to offer to try to help if employment problems resulted. If anyone knows how we can reach him please contact us at <DeclareEmergency@protonmail.com>.

Declare Emergency recognizes and empathizes with the frustration of this driver and all those who are disrupted by these acts of civil resistance. And we acknowledge that, without serious and drastic action on the climate crisis, billions of people will soon face unimaginable disruption, suffering, starvation and death.

The climate crisis is a climate emergency. One of Great Britain's top scientists has said that we have two to three years to act to preserve a future for humanity. Climate related weather events such as heat domes, flooding, fires and drought are already killing millions of people every year. We demand that President Biden declare a climate emergency and end extraction on federal and indigenous lands to deal with this crisis.