The stickerscape of environmental activism in Lützerath

Anthropogenic climate change is disrupting ecological balance more than ever. Germany, being the second of 23 developed countries that are responsible for half of all historical CO 2 emissions, has a substantial impact on global warming. In this study, I look at what until recently was a small German village called Lützerath and is now being excavated by the largest polluter in Europe, RWE AG. As Lützerath acts as a symbol for the 1.5-degree objective of the Paris Agreement in the German environmental discourse and was occupied by climate activists, I investigate its semiotic landscape as a highly rural, local space that has become globally relevant. The specific signs I consider are stickers. Being easy to produce, distribute and use, stickers are a common resource in public space, yet studies on them are rather scarce. Building on previous works, this study aims to contribute to the field by introducing stickerscapes and particularly investigating stickers as a dynamic bottom-up practice enabling citizens to express themselves by emplacing their voices in public space. Applying a multimodal social semiotic approach to Lützerath’s stickerscape, I explore stickers as a semiotic practice of environmental activism.