Lützerath
by Jörg Schneider
We all consume too much energy and most of us living in the global north live comparatively a life of luxury without being ready to abstain from our way of life. Thus we are destroying our nature, our climate and our planet.
To satisfy our hunger for energy, RWE - one of the biggest German energy enterprises - excavates brown coal for power generation in an unimaginable huge surface mine, destroying all the localities and the environment around it. And in spite of Germany's agreement on coal exit and knowing the limitation of global warming to the max. 1.5 °C, as fixed in the Paris Climate Agreement, is hardly reachable anymore without appropriate measures, the digging goes on needlessly. There are even some spots from where spectators can have a glance at the open pit just to satisfy their curiosity.
Resistance against coal mining in the area had been ongoing for a significant period of time. In an effort to make a statement and draw attention to the ecological destruction caused by mining, environmental activists took over an abandoned hamlet named Lützerath. Unfortunately, by the start of 2023, the police had cleared the area to allow RWE to continue with their mining operations. As a result, Lützerath was destroyed and no longer exists.
The photos here, all shot analogue and scanned afterwards, showcase the ecological disaster caused by RWE and one of the last days of Lützerath. To guarantee the activists‘ wishes to stay unknown, I didn‘t include them in my pics….
