With the start of the UN’s next climate summit in Bonn next week, thousands of climate justice activists, organized by Ende Gelande, forced their way onto Europe’s biggest coal mine, briefly shutting down operations.
When operators from RWE Power AG shut down the excavators for safety reasons, the activists cheered.
Police announcements via loudspeaker regularly reminded activists that their protest was illegal and that they were trespassing, and therefore committing a crime. Dorothee Häussermann, a spokeswoman for Ende Gelände, said the activists were engaged in civil disobedience.
“How can it be ‘legal’ for coal companies to destroy entire villages and forests only to fuel climate change with their lignite? If laws protect the destruction of natural resources needed for people to live, then we are obliged to break them — we see our actions as wholly legitimate,” she said.
As the climate crisis deepens, we expect to see more and more of these kinds of direct actions against the companies and individuals who are blocking action on climate and endangering the future for all humankind.
Read the full story on DW.com.
