you mean like the german environmentalists who singlehandedly kicked up german atmospheric mercury emissions?

Can you identify when exactly the German environmentalists did this thing you refer to? I'm assuming it's something coal related.

Total and per capita coal usage for Germany and a few other peer nations:

I can see a bump in early 1980s but I see the same in other nations, possibly a response to oil embargoes, possibly just economic growth.

	▲	adrianN an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Arguably Germany should have turned off a few lignite plants and kept their nuclear power a little bit longer.