Greta Thunberg is a 20-year-old environmental activist from Sweden. She became famous a few years ago for staging “climate strikes” where students walked out of school across Europe.
Thunberg also made headlines in the past for a fiery speech at the United Nations. She slammed world leaders and policymakers, saying they should be “ashamed” of their lack of real action against climate change.
Since then, Thunberg has continued to be active in the environmental movement; most recently, she traveled to Germany to take part in a large protest.
Clashing With Coal
Coal is used for around 27% of the world’s energy.
Coal production has gone up double in the past 50 years. It looks like we’re still far from doing away with this unclean energy source, which is still key to many economic areas, including states like Kentucky and West Virginia.
Thunberg wants to speed the process of getting rid of coal. She went to Germany to join up with around 6,000 people who were protesting the growth of a coal mine in the surrounding area of Dusseldorf.
The weather was bad as Thunberg and others chanted, shouting in the falling rain; she stepped up to a platform to give a speech, calling the mine expansion a “betrayal.”
According to Thunberg, building more areas and expanding production onto the existing coalmine is harming “future generations” and Germany, in particular, needs to take responsibility for its excessive pollution.
Saying Germany is “embarrassing” its country, Thunberg demanded the mine expansion by energy giant RWE be halted.
Police in Germany shove Greta Thunberg and a group of activists for peacefully protesting the expansion of a coal minepic.twitter.com/yr0kaHsLN7
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) January 15, 2023
Protesters Evicted
A week ago, over 1,000 militarized cops kicked out a few hundred protesters who’d been occupying the area, which is a town called Luetzerath. There’s been an ongoing protest there since 2021 to stop the coal mine growth by RWE.
Yet, recent permission for them to move forward on the project led to the police expelling protesters and fed into the passion of Thunberg and her fellow supporters as they came to make their voices heard.
German government leaders say the demolition of the small town and building of the expanded coal mine is good for European energy and protesters should calm down, as brown coal won’t be a focus going forward.
Thunberg said it’s not good enough and “carbon” needs to stay underground.
JUST IN – Police remove Greta Thunberg from the anti-coal protest in Luetzerath, Germany.
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 15, 2023
Thunberg’s Plans
Thunberg was removed from the protest by police, further adding to the controversy.
Thunberg encouraged Germany to build wind turbines and other energy sources, which is part of why they’re now short on energy as Russian applies more pressure in lowering energy into Europe.
Still, Thunberg’s fame is only increasing, especially following her making a joke against Andrew Tate, prior to his arrest for human trafficking, rape, and organized crime.
Her future plans remain to be seen, but it’s clear that Thunberg will continue to be a presence in European energy politics and environmentalism for years to come.
This article appeared in FreshOffThePress and has been published here with permission.
