Police officers carry a demonstrator to clear a road at the village Luetzerath near Erkelenz, Germany, Tuesday, January 10, 2023
SEVERAL hundred climate activists tried today to prevent heavy machinery from reaching an abandoned village in Germany that is due to be cleared for the expansion of a coalmine.
The stand-off between police and protesters followed a regional court’s decision on Monday rejecting a last-ditch attempt by the activists to stay in the hamlet of Luetzerath, west of Cologne, which has become a battleground between the government and environmentalists.
About 300 people refused to heed the ruling, arguing that civil disobedience at the site was justified in the face of the climate crisis.
One of the major criticisms of China’s breakneck development in recent decades has been the impact on nature — returning after 15 years away, BEN CHACKO assessed whether the government’s recent turn to environmentalism has yielded results
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