"7,500 form human chain along German-Polish border to protest brown coal mining", 24 Aug 2014

7,500 people from 27 countries have formed an 8-kilometer human chain across the German-Polish border to protest opencast brown coal mining, which could entail the destruction of villages in both countries...Joerg Haas, one of the organizers of the protest, told RT that he sees the alternative in renewable energies, which constitutes over 23 percent of Germany’s energy mix...“[Coal] is the form of energy generation which is very environmentally damaging. The burning of coal is destabilizing the climate, which causes a lot of human suffering. The burning of coal also poisons the air with mercury and particles. Most importantly, lignite mining is destroying entire villages, forests and a lot of land. In Germany, we’re moving towards a system based on clean renewable energies, and this is entirely possible,” he said...Ryszard Kosciesza, vice chairman of an association promoting development in the Polish region, dismissed the action as counter-productive. “Such actions only serve to spur on the economic stagnation of our country,” he told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily...