This is us
We are the initiative “Lützerath Lebt” and have been active in Lützerath for about a year now. Our protest began, when RWE demolished the road L277 between Lützerath and Keyenberg in June 2020. Spontaneously protesters got together and started a vigil, which has been a point of arrival and encouter in the region since.
When in October 2020 RWE started cutting down trees in and around Lützerath – contrary to their own statements – and also when demolition works took place in January many people came to get active against those acts of destruction.
At “Lützerath Lebt” people of different backgrounds and, motivations and expectations encounter one another. Some are in Lützerath longterm, others come by on the weekends or support us from afar. Some have been politically active for years, while others just get started here.
We are diverse. What unites us is the strive to stop coal mining finally.
We want to make the destruction RWE commits visible. We ensure that RWE cannot continue the destruction and creating facts without it being seen. In Lützerath no house will be demolished and no tree cut down unseen by the public. We will – when necessary – step into the way of the destructive “works” and ensure that Lützerath remains a place worth living in. We stand up for a just society – here and everywhere.
To us each demolished house and every cut down is one more step for RWE towards digging up the coal that lies beneath Lützerath. Our limit is the 1,5°-limit, which is – as a fact – binding under international law. Nonetheless the present course of governments and economy steer towards clearly exceeding this limit. To stay within 1.5° burning 100mio tons of coal is too much already, according to a recent survey (2021) of the “German Institute for Economic Research” RWE plans to burn 650mio tons, which is more than six times as much
If these plans were enacted millions of people would die, ecosystems would collapse.
We have to stay clearly below 1.5°, as already -at 1,2° average global warming – massive consequences can be observed. In the last year the Amazon region, California, Australia and Siberia experienced catastrophic wildfires. People have to flee and encounter horrendous circumstances, they loose their basis of life or have to die – nowadays already – due the results of the climate crisis. And we are responsible for it to a great degree! 1,5° is the calculated maximum, everything beyond that is a complete catastrophe.
“When you’re on the verge of the abyss, you need to make sure your next step is in the right direction.” (António Guterres, 2021)