Thread by @JoanieLemercier

When I was little I was determined to always protect nature, stand against 'bad people' to save forests, animals, wilderness. 🌳🌱🦝🦉

As I grew up my convictions slowly faded, and I've done literally nothing.

The Hambach forest in Germany is 12,000-year-old.
It's being cut for coal extraction.
Only 10% remains today.

Some people decided to save the forest.

They built tree-houses and moved in to protect the trees from being cut.

Police and government are trying to evict them to cut down the forest.
But they're resisting. 🌳✊

Earlier today activists and students were arrested.

📷 @HambiBleibt

The forest is just 2 hours away from Brussels, Amsterdam or Frankfurt.

🌳 Who's coming ? 🌳

goo.gl/maps/iz8vcYsGA…

The drive was very gloomy.

In this part of Germany, coal is burning everywhere, the whole region has been turned into a wasteland by a coal company: RWE.

I find the white fumes almost beautiful..

Unfortunately it's not just steam.
It also contains Mercury, Sulfur dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen oxides (NOx), Fine particles, lead, cadmium, carbon monoxide..

This year, it will kills 22.900 people in Europe.

Like every year.

Oh and Arsenic.

Welcome to MORDOR

It's getting very dark now, so I'm heading to Hambach forest for the night.

#HambiBleibt #EndCoal

Well that was a cold night (4℃).

Woke up at 6.15 with daylight. ☀️
Saw 3 deer running around. 🦌
Had a tour of the tree-houses with @HambiLluna. 🌳

90% of the forest has been cut down.

Since activists moved in (2012) cutting has stopped.

Until the police manages to evict them. #HambiBleibt

There has been 2 police raids just this week.

📷@sebalex269

Steffen Meyn was a freelance journalist covering the evictions.

He died during a police raid, on 19 Sept 2018.
Here's his last tweet:

https://twitter.com/Vergissmeynnic1/status/1042406012349820930

On the edge

This is the largest, dirtiest coal mine in Europe.
It's responsible for 100 Million Tons of CO2 emissions per year.

That's 3168 kg of CO2 per second.

💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

To give you a sense of scale

📷@kapix47

This is the RWE excavator 290
It can extract 240,000 tons of coal a day

The modern Leviathan

This monster is built with @Autodesk.

With a capacity of 480 000 tons of CO2 emissions per day,
the "RWE excavator 290" is featured on Autodesk's website as:

"A success story"

🏭☁️💀💀💀

I reached out to @andrew_anagnost CEO of Autodesk

Here's his response:
1- Someone has to do it
2- We give away free software to other companies
3- He removed RWE from his website overnight

Andrew is giving us a good demonstration on how leaders deal with #ClimateChange issues.

Before I leave, I'm visiting the village of Immerath.
Its church was built in 1891.

📷flickr

Here's Immerath today.

It's being erased to extend the coal mine.

Built in 1891, the "Cathedral of Immerath" was destroyed in January 2018 by Coal company RWE.

@RWE_AG made 1.900.000.000 euros profits in 2017.

The "Cathedral of Immerath": 2017 vs 2019

From this moment despair ends and tactics begin.

Banksy x @ExtinctionR

"Notre Dame de Immerath"

Destroyed for profit and coal mining.

This coal mine is supported by @BNPParibas @Autodesk @DeutscheBank

🎥by @arne_mueseler

https://twitter.com/JoanieLemercier/status/1112774849712283648

I'm a rather moderate person, but on my way back from this trip the only word that comes to mind is #ClimateTerrorism

What do you think ?

So who's responsible for this madness ?

Here's a short list of the men behind the coal business

1- Rolf Martin Schmitz
He's the CEO of coal company RWE.

He's being paid 338 000 euros / month.

2- Jean-Laurent Bonnafé
He's the CEO of @BNPParibas.
He's supporting the coal industry.

He's being paid 280.000 euros / month.

3- Andrew Anagnost
He's the CEO of @autodesk .
He's supplying software to run the coal mines.

He's being paid 666.000 euros / month.

Thread continues here:

https://twitter.com/JoanieLemercier/status/1123630322367827968

@autodesk @lynellecameron @AutodeskFdn @ADSKCommunity @clairecollns @Steveblum247 @scott__reese @rscottherren @carmelgalvin Greta Thunberg is in the Hambach forest today.

@autodesk @lynellecameron @AutodeskFdn @ADSKCommunity @clairecollns @Steveblum247 @scott__reese @rscottherren @carmelgalvin @GretaThunberg @Ende__Gelaende @KathrinAnna << Our war against nature must end today >>

@GretaThunberg at #hambibleibt

@autodesk @lynellecameron @AutodeskFdn @ADSKCommunity @clairecollns @Steveblum247 @scott__reese @rscottherren @carmelgalvin @GretaThunberg @Ende__Gelaende @KathrinAnna @HambiBleibt @Kokolores_SW @endegelaende_fr @cdion @GreenRupertRead @WeDontHaveTime0

https://twitter.com/Ende__Gelaende/status/1160186782580969473

@autodesk @lynellecameron @AutodeskFdn @ADSKCommunity @clairecollns @Steveblum247 @scott__reese @rscottherren @carmelgalvin @GretaThunberg @Ende__Gelaende @KathrinAnna @HambiBleibt @Kokolores_SW @endegelaende_fr @cdion @GreenRupertRead @WeDontHaveTime0 Today, #ExtinctionRebellion held direct actions outside @blackrock office in London.

Blackrock owns the largest coal mine of Europe.
Blackrock also owns @Autodesk, the software operating the mine.

https://twitter.com/XRBristol/status/1183717152450400258