Action Days in the Rhineland Coalfield
Lots of things were happening in the Rhineland Coalfield today: Early in the morning, four activists locked themselves to coal train tracks. Two more activists abseiled themselves from a bridge. These two blockades stopped the coal transportation between the open-cast mine Hambach and the power plants. Further north, at the edge of the Garzweiler mine, a group of 80 people took a seat in front of the buckets of the digging machine, some of them locked themselves together. Another group ventured further down into the mine and climbed on the wheels the digging machine, accompanied by a Samba band and rebel clowns. And last but not least, about 20 activists were blockading the gate to the mininig area for six hours. It seems that more and more people are willing to take direct action against the polluting industry to stop climate change!
The Rhineland Coalfied is situated in the Western part of Germany, close to the Dutch bordier. There are three huge open-cast lignite mines, and right next to it, some of Europe's dirtiest coal-fired power plants, which emit about 100 million tons of CO2 per year.
Lots of the activists had their base on the climate action camp, that is taking this week on a piece of land that is scheduled to be digged away soon for the lignite mine.
View images of the action days on www.klimacamp-im-rheinland.de