After school kids woke up the world to the immediacy of the climate crisis with their Fridays4Future school strikes this year, the stage was set for a new wave of civil disobedience protests to urge stronger climate action. A prime example of this happened in Germany this week as thousands of people took part in an illegal, yet peaceful march to occupy a coal mine operated by one of Germany’s biggest energy producers.
Coordinated by the Ende Gëlande alliance, the campaigners evaded security forces across roads and fields before reaching the pit and descending its banks, while thousands of others maintained separate blockades of the nation’s coal infrastructure as part of a week-long series of actions designed to end Europe’s dependency on fossil fuels. The climate action is a compilation of environmental movements calling for an immediate shut-down of the coal mine, as well as for more drastic government measures against the climate crisis.
Yes, Germany’s government has pledged to phase out coal by 2038, but the activists believe that timeline is too late to stop the worst effects of climate heating (we agree).
