The Hambach mine, the largest of its kind in Europe, is ground zero for the German climate movement. Activists have resorted to civil disobedience. TreeHouses.

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/germany-has-major-dirty-coal-and-climate-problem 

The Hambach mine produces 44 million tons of lignite per year. In terms of carbon emissions, lignite is one the dirtiest fossil fuels. Germany is well known for its “energy transition” to renewables, but still burns 188 million tons of lignite per year to generate power. In 2017, burning lignite produced nearly a quarter of electricity in Germany. That number rises to 37 percent if you include black coal. 

A short hike across a wasteland of tree stumps and churned mud to the south is Hambach Forest. Or what's left of it. Unlike pit mining, open-cast lignite extraction means removing everything on the surface of the earth—trees, villages, fields, highways—and then a thousand more feet of earth and rock to reach a layer of lignite. Before RWE began mining here in 1978, the forest stretched over more than 4,000 acres. Now just 500 acres are left. Clearcutting those remaining 500 is essential to RWE's plan to expand its mine—one of three in the region—southward. Tens of millions of tons of valuable coal lie far beneath the trees.

Activists have resorted to civil disobedience in response to the lack of government climate action. In 2012, a few young Germans built tree houses high up in the beeches and oaks of the forest and lived in them year-round. Police periodically evicted the squatters, but they kept returning in greater numbers. By summer 2018, occupiers had built about 80 dwellings, some as high as 80 feet from the ground. 

https://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/16/europe/germany-coal-hambach-forest/index.html 

As Germany hosts green summit, an energy firm is razing a nearby forest. 

Lignite Coal Mine Removes Topsoil, Trees, Everything from Surface of the Earth. 

https://www.fastcompany.com/3031997/take-a-trip-to-this-horrifying-mine-one-of-the-largest-man-made-holes-in-the-world 
Take A Trip To This Horrifying Mine, One Of The Largest Man-Made Holes In The World. The largest hole in Europe is an open-pit coal mine in Germany, and everything inside is just enormous, including machines that are the length of two soccer fields and the height of a 30-story building.

Lignite, a Super Polluting type of Coal.

https://www.occupy.com/article/act-out-179-appalachia-germany-anti-capitalist-trees-people-power-systemic-corruption#sthash.MH88JFNv.dpbs 

ACT OUT! [179] FROM APPALACHIA TO GERMANY: ANTI-CAPITALIST TREES, PEOPLE POWER & SYSTEMIC CORRUPTION

WED, 10/10/2018 - BY ELEANOR GOLDFIELD