In January 2023, the German hamlet of Lützerath fell prey to a ravenous beast. A giant excavator clawed at the ground, gouging free great chunks of earth as a line of riot police held back horrified protesters. For weeks, environmental groups had tried to stop the abandoned village of Lützerath from being bulldozed to make way for a new coal mine: They marched, they glued themselves to fences, two activists known as Pinky and Brain even spent days hiding in a self-built underground tunnel system. Eventually, though, the police dragged all of them out of the mud to make way for the machines of RWE, Germany’s biggest power company.
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