Last night, via my regional public TV news (HR, for Hessen), and the national ARD public TV news....they all carried a 30-second piece from a protest in Hessen....at the Dannenroder Forest.
For those who haven't followed this environmental protest....the court system (about two months ago) approved the continued construction of a autobahn (A-49). We aren't talking about a big stretch....42.35 km (26.4 miles). But this piece has to go through the Dannenroder Forest (the 'holiest' of holy woods in Germany.....at least we are told that).
What this means is that 66 acres or 27 hectares of the Dannenroder woods has to be cut down.
Since the tree-cutters have arrived....this drama has played out with fifty to a hundred folks attached to the trees (usually 4 to 6 meters in the air)....to burden the time-table, and requires a minimum of 200 police to help settle the situation almost daily.
Maybe over the first week....people watched the updates over the regional public TV network (HR) and were connected to the story. But stories like this....tend to lose public attention after the 2nd week. I would guess presently....maybe half the TV audience goes to mute the sound when these updates come on, and frankly....interest has been lost. On national public TV....it rarely gets discussed now.
Well...the hype went up a notch last night because a pianist set up his piano on the edge of the protest zone and played classical piano to the protest crowd.
The journalists were all hyped up about this and felt that it'd draw more public attention back to the subject. Well....maybe for 30 seconds.
All this protest action....five or six meters in the air....in the middle of a bitter December landscape? Between the frigid temperatures, misty rain, snow, sleet....it has to be awful miserable and requiring a lot of determination to continue on as a protester.
One has to hope that the tree cutting crowd gets a pace going and completes the job in the next week or two, or this continues to find a way into the nightly news.
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