VietJoy

FILE - People who spoke on stage, gather to rally the crowd at the end of the Climate Strike protest, Sept. 20, 2019, in Washington.

Climate activists have taken to the streets of Washington, blocking key intersections as part of their effort bring "the whole city to a gridlocked standstill" to call attention to climate change.

Organizers had called on people to skip work and school to participate in the protest, which follows mass rallies of young people in cities around the world Friday that drew hundreds of thousands of people demanding urgent action to combat climate change.

Groups of protesters in Washington blocked several key streets and intersections Monday morning.  In one area, not far from the White House, activists pushed a sailboat into the middle of an intersection as demonstrators changed "This is what Democracy looks like."

Traffic was being diverted by police.

The demonstration, called Shut Down DC, coincides with a U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York.