Most of us think of Germany as one of the most muscularity - progressive countries in the world . But in recent years , it ’s also increase its dependence on a form of vim that ’s anything but clean : ember . And it ’s demolishing or relocate entire towns to get at it .
While Germany has some of the largest brown ember deposit on Earth , a valuable chunk of it resides underneath township that date back to the Middle Ages . Most of these are turn up in the older East Germany , and in the thirties and 40s , dozens of them were ruin to make way for minelaying . The practice terminate when Germany build its clear energy initiatives . But now , dirty brown ember reemerging as a trashy option than clear energy . And the cities are in the fashion again .
A blade wheel digger turn at the surface mining Profen of the Central German Lignite Corporation ( MIBRAG ) southwestern of Leipzig , eastern Germany . AP Photo / Eckehard Schulz .
There ’s the modest township of Atterwasch , whichNational Geographicreports is now on thedoomed listthanks to the rich supply of chocolate-brown ember that sits beneath it . Or Proschim , a 700 - year - former hamlet that ’s on the chopping cylinder block as well . Or Magdeborn , whose church nowsits in the eye of a lakecreated by an undecided - pit mine :
Vineta Church is anchored on an artificial lake created after open roll minelaying passed through the area . AP Photo / Jens Meyer .
The same story goes for Ithiel Town in Poland and Czech Republic , too . At the Czech pit mine of Horni Jiretin , pits mines have almost consume a Baroque castle where Beethoven premier the philharmonic Eroica :
Imagevia .
How is this brown ember actually mined ? It ’s pretty wide-eyed — a gargantuan bucket power shovel , like the one learn in the tether exposure above , is used to cut wide swatches of dirt aside from the ember bank deposit underneath :
A bucket - chain dredger mines overburden in the aerofoil excavation “ Vereinigtes Schleenhain ” of the key German Brown Coal company MIBRAG , south of Leipzig , eastern Germany . APN Photo / Eckehard Schulz .
Then it ’s just a matter of getting the poppycock — billion of tons of it — onto conveyor belt for processing . The complex part is the plain scale of the surgery , which involves some of the largest pail diggers in existence .
Top : A view at a spreader surrounded by scaffold for restoration . AP Photo / Eckehard Schulz . Bottom : An excavator in the control surface mining Vereinigtes Schleenhain of the Central German Brown Coal company MIBRAG , south of Leipzig , eastern Germany . APN Photo / Eckehard Schulz .
In some way , it ’s ironic . Germany , and Europe , in its wash to minify its dependence on pestiferous forms of energy , has opened up a market interruption that ’s being filled by one of the dirtiest of all . And centuries of history roll up as collateral legal injury . [ National Geographic ]
conduce image : A elephantine paddle steering wheel of a bucketful excavator of the nearby lignite mine is view at a wipeout site at Elsdorf , near Cologne , western Germany . AP Photo / Frank Augstein .
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