Tam
Environmentalist,
Hambach Forest
"If companies exploit this earth and destroy our future so effectively, then there will be resistance."
Indigo
Environmentalist,
Hambach Forest
"I know it will hurt to clear my tree house, but from the beginning it was the reason why we built here: that the tree houses should protect this forest as a blockade and a barrier."
Clumsy
Lives in Hambach Forest
for 5 years
"As long as the problem is not out of the world, we are not out of the world."
Michael Zobel
Nature Guide, Aachen
"The Hambach Forest is the last of its kind in Central Europe, and according to our nature conservation guidelines in Germany and Europe, the forest must be protected immediately and without discussion."
Dirk Jansen
BUND, Environmental and Nature Conservation Policy
"It is not possible that an open pit mine is still managed according to the legal foundations of the 1970s. The Federal Mining Law breaks down basic law. Among other things, we are trying to develop jurisdiction over legal actions."
Dr. Hannes Böttcher
Öko-Institut, Freiburg
"With the age of the trees, their attractiveness for living things increases. And because there are few old forests, species that rely on old forests are rare, so it is important to promote and protect old hardwoods."
Prof. Ulf Riebesell
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre
for Ocean Research, Kiel
"We have to drastically reduce CO2 emissions and we have to start today to meet the goal of being climate-neutral in 2050. If we do not achieve that, we will have massive problems on this planet."
Antje Grothus
Local resident,
Initiative "Buirer für Buir"
"For me it is unbelievable what kind of power such an energy company in Germany may have, and we absolutely must end it."
Tim Christophersen
Forests and Climate Change,
UN Environment, Nairobi/Kenia
"The big problem with the challenge of climate change is that short-term profit for private companies is often above national or macroeconomic goals, which we nowadays describe as market failure."
Prof. Werner Aeschbach
Institute of Environmental Physics,
University of Heidelberg
"Now to plan that 2040 or even later still using coal, that's just complete nonsense."
Dorothee Häussermann
Ende Gelände
"In our action, we want to paralyze the opencast mining infrastructure and get in the way of lignite mining, directly with our bodies - we want to stop this destructive process and thus the climate crisis - and we'll have to dump coal in the ground immediately."