That's the name for the massive collective that turned brown coal (lignite) into gas.

CNN: Born in the east, young Germans still forced to head west

Which makes sense, considering that it's the stuff that coal is made of (lignite coal is soft brown coal formed from geologic pressures on forests that died millions of years ago).

FORBES: Ethanol

Brown sees the problems with coal and climate change as a very human issue that could lead to droughts in some places, including the American Midwest, and floods in other places, like the American coasts.

CNN: The war over coal is personal

Les Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute, points to studies that coal emissions, including mercury and other pollutants, cause more than 10, 000 deaths a year.

CNN: The war over coal is personal