Germany is razing a 12,000-year-old forest to make way for a coal mine

Germany may have set laudable goals for its ambitious “Energiewende”—or shift to a low-carbon economy—but it is still struggling to free itself from fossil fuels, in particular electricity generated from coal’s dirtier cousin lignite. In the latest demonstration of this struggle, an ancient forest is about to be razed in order to expand what is already Europe’s largest opencast mine.

Today (Sept. 13), the last 200 acres of Hambach Forest in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia were a scene of battle between environmental activists and German energy company RWE, which owns the land and wants to clear it for mining. German police in riot gear arrived in force to evict activists from their treehouses.

read more: https://qz.com/1389135/germany-is-razing-a-12000-year-old-forest-to-expand-a-coal-mine/

Posted by admin on Sep 20 2018. Filed under Forest & Land, News at Now, News From Roots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry