“Warriors in a tree house”

Climate activists’ guerrilla-style protest against lignite mining in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has divided the region, reports Stefan Schultz in a long article in Spiegel Online. The dispute dates back to 2012, but is now escalating because the region is considering evicting the demonstrators, some of which have been living for years in the Hambach Forest. The forest is slated to fall victim to an extension of RWE’s lignite mine. Many locals are also on the fence about the destruction of the landscape, the author writes. Schultz calls the occupied area of the forest a “frontline of the German energy transition.”

Read the article (behind paywall) in German here.

For background, read the CLEW factsheet When will Germany finally ditch coal?