As my last credited course during my PhD-education, I participated in the Occupy Climate Change Online School during this spring term. The online school, being organised by a team of renowned international scholars headed by Marco Armiero and administered by Anja Moum Rieser, brought together many different lectures about political ecology, environmental justice, and political science with a focus on the climate crisis, decolonialism, and just energy transitions.
I am glad that I was able to participate and to learn so much. My thanks and regards go to the many teachers in this course, who, and that is the most important thing in my view, taught us things that were dear to their hearts, with a conviction that change is indeed possible. The course was characterised by its international participants from many corners of the world. Being part of something that combines so many different worldviews and opinions on the basis of one joint struggle was very inspirational to me.
Of course, we also had to fulfil a final course assignment. Mine was about the climate crime that took place in January this year in Lützerath, Western Germany. As it is usus in this course, the finished products are published in the Atlas of the Other Worlds. In the following I will give a brief introduction to my piece. If it catches your interest, you can find the full version here, in the atlas.
Abstract
On 14 January 2023, the international climate movement met at the lignite open pit coal mine Garzweiler in Western Germany to protest the continuous mining business of the corporation Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk, better known as RWE. The culmination point of years of protests was the little village of Lützerath, which was squatted for about two years to prevent RWE’s large digging machine to destroy its houses and to get to the coal beneath it. On this day, 30,000 – 39,000 people travelled to the pit colloquially known as “Mordor”, an huge desert-like moonscape, with coal power plants blowing their climate-destroying fumes into the air, clearly visible at the horizon. It was a powerful protest, but it was futile in the end. Lützerath was destroyed and the coal is being dug up, public climate commitments, the Paris climate agreement, and protests notwithstanding. To add injury to insult, the German green party both ruled the federal energy ministry and the regional environmental ministry concerned with Lützerath: Instead of fighting RWE, they embraced the company’s goals and sanctioned the destruction of the village.
Together with others I travelled to Lützerath and took part in the protests. In the following I have interviewed five fellow protestors in a semi-structured manner. Following their testimonies, a small article has been written that documents what happened there and how the climate injustice took place in Germany.
If you want to read the full text, you find it here.
At this point I would also like to point to the Environmental Humanities Lab, which recently became a centre, at my division of history of science, technology and environment at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Marco Armiero used to be its director and created together with others this excellent research hub. The online school was organised under its umbrella. If you want to, check out their website and their wonderful programme for the upcoming autumn term. At the moment, Adam Wickberg acts as interim director, until Robert Gioielli takes over as new associate professor for environmental humanities at out division from 01 January 2024.
Achim Klüppelberg 