Thread by @ColeHirsch1

In Westphalia Germany there exists a #Hambach forest that has been untouched for 12,000 years and is home to many ancient European ecosystem species such as bats, hornbeams and mycorrhizal fungi. Yet this forest is at a risk of being entirely logged.
nationalgeographic.com/environment/20…

The Hambach forest lies over 85 square km of lignite coal which is the power company RWE's prized possession. RWE is not the only one interested in the forest. Protesters have squatted in Hambach forest for five years now building tree houses and disrupting excavating processes.

The group is not one organization but a gathering of individuals to stop deforestation. To avoid the constant threat of eviction the group builds treehouses 20 ft or higher in the trees and keeps them constantly occupied to avoid being cut down by police.
hambachforest.org/squat/who-we-a…

These evictions warrants were because the tree houses "violate fire codes" for the forest. In the eyes of the police, RWE should take control of the property so they can tear it all down. The police system here is corrupt due to the fact that Germany is heavily reliant upon coal.

RWE holds so much power there that profits are taken over sustainability. In the EU Germany contains 7 of the top 10 greenhouse gas emitters. German power plants cause about 227 premature deaths a year with just 3 RWE plants within 20km of Hambach creating 75 million tons of CO2.

With the Hambach lignite alone, the plant will burn about 240,000 tons of lignite daily creating 325 tons of CO2 daily. The appeal to corporations and the upper class over the environment is so prominent that a destruction observatory deck has been built.
medium.com/@philsmacd/rwe…

Under these circumstances protesters have setup a meadow camp in Mannheim to serve as a base for tree house occupants and protesters. Every Sunday the group holds a forest walk to inhabit the forest and disrupt logging. The group removes plastic RWE set in the trees to kill bats.

Even @GretaThunberg has joined in on the protests by visiting the forest. She gave a speech describing the horror of the situation as "so huge and devastating", and has called on Germany to "protect its wild forest as an important part of German culture."
theguardian.com/environment/20…

@GretaThunberg The following video shows how @RWE_UK uses the largest land vehicle in the world to excavate the coal from the barren once bountiful land. In the video the vast forest can be seen with the destroyed earth displayed in the foreground while the forest and its gardens are excavated.

@GretaThunberg @RWE_UK With only 10% of the original 13,500 acres of the forest left, not only is this a national crisis for Germany but an international wake up to step up and #ActOnClimate.
The entire planet is being effected similarly. To bring change we need to stand as one with #HambacherForst.

@GretaThunberg @RWE_UK CO2 is responsible for about three quarters of emissions in the world with the ability of being able to linger in air for thousands of years. In America and Europe CO2 levels have reached 411 parts per million in the atmosphere. We are all being effected!
nationalgeographic.com/environment/gl…

@GretaThunberg @RWE_UK According to Harold Wanless, a specialist in sea-level rise @univmiami it is possible within the next 10 years we see drastic events due to climate change with the earth already 1.5°F warmer. Now is the time to act or else we will have nothing to act on!
scmp.com/magazines/post…