HAMBACH

 The Anglo-Saxon Folk of this Island have a unique link to the forest's of Germany it's where our god's and faith were born. For English heathens the German forests are sacred, so this story seems very personal to me. Hambach Forest, located near Buir in West Germany between Cologne and Aachen  is one of Europe's oldest forest's of Oak and Hornbeam trees, some over 500 years old, with a rich diversity of flora and fauna. The forest once offered a habitat to a multitude of species including Dormice, Tawny Owls and Bech Steins Bat. Since 1970, Hambach has been owned by Germany's second biggest energy company RWE. They destroyed the forest and turned it in to the largest open pit lignite coal mine in Germany producing over 4 million tons of lignite a year which is burnt in three nearby power stations. To get the coal the trees are felled, ripped and torn from the earth leaving large gashes of open earth. This policy means only 10% of the forest's 13,500 acres are now left. The huge destruction caused to Hambach by the mining company has shocked everyone whose seen it. To save the last remaining part of the forest, young climate activists created a fairy tale like community of tree houses and tents hosting workshops for curious visitors from across the world. The camp soon become an international symbol of resistance against fossil fuel extraction and burning. On October 2018, 50,000 attended a demonstration to stop the forests total destruction. The problem is, coal is an important part of Germany's economic success and provides thousands of jobs and 31% of the country's power. So Mrs Merkel's Government has ignored the numbers who demonstrated to save the forest, they have ignored their commitments on the international stage to climate change and the fact that the mine is the biggest source of CO-2 in Europe today, instead in league with the coal industry they have sought to make an economic case for why this forest has to be destroyed and sought to crush the protests to save Hambach. In 2018, 4,000 riot police, were sent in to end the six year occupation of the forest by 100 young people, supported by helicopters, drones and water cannons  the riot police attacked the climate camp and used chainsaws to cut down the tree houses. The UK media hardly mentioned this struggle despite its international importance. If we allow big corporations like RWE to destroy a 12,000 year old forest like Hambach, we are in trouble. When a forest is damaged, we are damaged because we are part of the same e co-system. We can't afford to ignore what is happening to Forest's in different parts of Europe because the knock on effect will effect us all. The future of Europe's forests are in our hands we must view each tree felled as an attack on our heathen culture and demonstrate as loudly and as much as can that this must stop ! the young are waking up to the crimes of the worlds governments and big corporations against our planet and we must demonstrate that Anglo Saxon Heathenism  offers them a different way, a different lifestyle to follow. 

Note:Heathenism is the old faith or old way of the English