Slnko aj Zapadá/Sun Also Sets

In the fall of 2018, when Greenpeace organized a protest against coal mining and burning in Nováky/Horná Nitra, few could have expected that shortly thereafter the government would announce the end of coal mining in the region. Today, 7 years later, I decided to visit this region, talk to former miners, a community worker, a representative of an environmental organization and others. To what extent has the coal transformation been successful? Has it started a new, carbon-free economy, or is the place turning into a hunger valley? And although many former miners talk about the hardships of underground work, accidents, and the unsustainability of coal mining, they agree that they expected more from the transformation of the region. In addition to the testimonies of former miners, the video points out the environmental impacts of coal mining and burning, and passes through the landscape, which is only slowly healing from its wounds, similar to the bodies of some miners.
Despite everything, the end of coal combustion in Horná Nitra could have an impact of more than 7 percent reduction in Slovakia's CO2 emissions.
Thanks: Lenka Ilčíková, Friends of the Earth CEPA, Jaroslav Vojtáš, Contact Center Prievidza, Vanda Mesiariková