Heat records. Drying forests. More frequent violent storms. The effects of climate change are already being felt. And what is the German government doing? And what is Uniper doing? They are putting a new coal-fired power station, Datteln IV, on the grid, which will further fuel these devastating developments.
But we will not put up with people burning our future! Therefore we followed the call of Fridays for Future, Greenpeace, Ende Gelände and many other groups and joined the protests in Datteln.
The protest is red – and colorful
The construction of a “red line” on the riverbank impressively illustrates that Datteln IV is unacceptable. The assembled people hold self-painted protest signs with inscriptions like: “You are high on CO2” or: “Look, my anger is rising exponentially to the average temperature”.
A pregnant activist of the Koala Kollektiv has her belly painted with protest slogans and shows with it: The burning of coal is above all a crime against the future generation.
Other activists also draw attention to this: “Granny, what is a polar bear,” is written on a poster, “Well, my child, we’re looting and ravaging your world – do you mind?
Datteln IV contributes to climate protection? A myth.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister President Armin Laschet claims that Datteln IV even contributes to climate protection, as it is more efficient than old power plants that are taken off the grid for this purpose. But the calculation does not work out: The old power plants are no longer profitable and are therefore no longer working to capacity anyway. According to Experts, Datteln IV therefore leads to around 4 million tons of additional CO2 emissions – per year of its operating life. By comparison: a tree has to grow for 80 years to compensate for even one ton of CO2.
In addition, Germany no longer mines hard coal, so that the coal for the power station has to be imported, some of it from other continents. There the mining destroys ecosystems and affects the health of the surrounding population. In addition, further emissions are caused by transport.
And this for a raw material whose combustion is already one of the biggest drivers of global warming.
We therefore demand: Datteln IV must be taken off the grid immediately!
Coal exit NOW! For a future that remains worth living.
