they don't have they couldn't afford bread they couldn't afford fuel even afford to get their own cash out of a.t.m. machines and from banks this is going to be today is going to be the seventh day of protests something president bush has never had to deal with throughout his nearly thirty years of rule over sudan japan's main stock market the nikkei has fallen five percent japanese investors reacting to wall street closing on christmas eve at a record low shareholders are worried by donald trump's criticism of the federal reserve along with the u.s. government shutdown and trade tensions with china israel's government has called elections for april seven months earlier than expected the announcement follows a deadlock over a controversial military conscription. are i'd have today those are the very latest headlines from us here at al-jazeera do stay with us because coming up next it's. the marshall islands holds a toxic legacy from years of u.s.

military nuclear testing. as the sea levels rise one east investigates the threat this followed posters on al-jazeera. i weighed all see in antarctica the size of an extraordinary bids to create the largest protected area on a. for this special episode of a thrice we going on board the greenpeace icebreaker optic sunrise following one of

the biggest campaigns in the environmental movement is ations history witnessing the spectacular biodiversity and the many threats to life from climate change to add to fishing as a team of scientists photographers and ocean experts sets out to prove these vos remote borders must become an antarctic ocean sanctuary. before i set off down south i'm going to find out a little about the journey i'm about to embark on tucked away in this maze of old london streets something quite extraordinary. ever since i was a boy i've been mesmerized by tales of the golden age of antarctic exploration of the early twentieth century names of polar explorers like roald amundsen and cups

and skulls. well this is where some of those expeditions came to get them apps us briefly because it's good to see this is a kind of treasure trove of false exploration that comes out of the it. turns out mankind has forever been hooked on the concept of a mysterious continent at the end of the world. this mess from the fifteen eighties is the last of the classical world view this is the world as it would have been understood the ancient greeks and romans still got this great terrell stall it's known called meter the unknown southern land spin forward three centuries to the time of men like captain scott who died on his return from the south pole philip shows me a sledging map from that expedition is. this is what they actually used to place the food for the attempt on the pole incredibles and here we have him reaching the

south pole and then of course the terrible trick. back in scott time here just demonstrates how hot it was then just how challenging it was that a far cry from today it was this period is known as the heroic age they were truly great heroes up until the one nine hundred twenty days there were probably less than should think fifty or sixty people had actually ever stepped into the cold loop. of course no thousands again every year. like many of the old explorers i first had for punta arenas in southern chile but unlike them i'll be flying into antarctica to king george island at the northern tip here all join the greenpeace ship the arctic sunrise and head into the weddell sea with luck will reach our target the sixty fourth parallel which marks

the northern edge of the proposed asian century an internationally supported marine reserve covering one point eight million square kilometers that would be protected from direct human impacts like fishing oil drilling and deep sea mining. how times have changed immediately it's clear how connected the outer reaches of the antarctic continent to become the plane is full of tourists. what was once a grueling journey of months maybe is now can be done in an hour and a half with lunch and if you. want to. be an elf like that for fun. it's a cold murky arrival i'm surprised at how many people there are around dozens of coming and going to here without king george island and downscaling made it seem like that they don't.

look so remote as more of a transport. you can see lots of tears. taking rooms out to inflatable boats out to meet cruise ships for the holidays i also hear a lot of research stations. with the weather closing in we need to get a move on. into . the next two weeks. thank you. write a. program. well we're underway immediately heading for the proposed ocean sanctuary isn't any time to lose not just for the arctic sunrise winter is not far away and the ice will soon close in about its business or

a race against time to protect areas like the weddell sea before it's too late will mccallum is a greenpeace campaign leader we're campaigning for will be the world's largest protected area as an antarctic ocean sanction an area of the battle say to be about five times the size of germany the proposal is already on the table it's already got the backing of the. scientists are saying we need to protect a third of the world's oceans at least every one to let fish stocks recover it one to mitigate against the worst impacts of climate change and man thought is a great place to start in just nine months time in hobart australia the decision will be made by the antarctic ocean commission the international body responsible for the conservation of these waters on whether to accept the sentry proposal the aim of the expedition is to build the case that it needs to happen. the hours go by and the temperature drops significantly. on the bridge they're on high alert we're heading into dangerous waters tense times with skipper who'll ruzicka you have what

they call birdie bits growlers and icebergs depending on the size. but they can all damage a ship when you're steaming at night key thing about ice is avoiding it but now we're going to look for the ice and we will intentionally go into some of the ice and there is room down here now i think to push our way through a bit. far. to cool climbs into the crow's nest transport leads through the ice. come through the ontologies sound which i would buy sexy and talk to put into that we're not on the web will see but not yet at the point at which they want to protect it but to get that we've got to get through all this ice there's a lot of it around and we're finding these clear passages trying to we've always through the ice. everyone on board is just willing the ship to make it into the

proposed sanctuary the big problem is getting people to realize why they should care about the i'm talking to you know this is wildlife that most people have never come across will never come across and so being able to tell that story relies on us getting there are lots of us getting the footage back and tell talking about the importance of marine sanctuaries so the fact that they start to put out a recovery if we put these areas of them it's the fact that climate change will be not as bad if we manage suppose large areas of the ocean off limits. dogma's falls but there is no rest on the bridge for the captain and the night crew there is an illusion that there are. floodlights on the boughs showed the ship now milledge dumped quietly against the ice and intentional maneuver for the remainder of the night but everyone is keyed up flying off. to.

the next day at la. asked the arctic sunrise has arrived surrounded by some of the coldest most diverse waters there are and was all on board who may yet be the largest protected area on the planet we were wondering could you good news very good news made it made it to this is for parallel sitting there now. there's someone other ships in this entire space and you just go over this side and recently saw getting sold tens of of ships both cruise liners cargo ships fishing vessels the moment you get through this sound as us another ship out there and that's it and they're all whole area that's slightly scary yet terrifying. but very exciting as well exciting how to just make the case that this is pristine this area is not developed his not call industry has never had industry sort of area that's kind of the most untouched even within and topcoat. are.

going to. make friends and thank you for trying to wrap my brain around with. what we're looking at here is felt yes sea ice is great icebergs to be our last is sweeping up james ross island at the weddell sea spent way to this proposed area pretty much are touched by human activity always scientific research is taking place it is an incredible sight but deeply troubling to classes have always collapsed and carved into the antarctic ocean however with global warming they're doing so with increasing speed and as the ice sheets retreat sea levels rise. this right here is humanity's problem for decades perhaps centuries ahead.

it is laundry day off at sunrise and here's the thing we were thinking being good citizens by wearing fleeces which is made out of recycled plastic also bottles that sort of thing but when you watch the. hundreds of thousands of microfiber is end up in the world's oceans so here in port it's a little and not for girls. and of course plastic pollution in our seas is one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time and the team makes the most of a rare opportunity for research. these are some of the america's woods on the planet there could be a ploy to do they could be blasting seriously greenpeace to conduct this is where i

was taking samples from the water to see if any micro plastics have infiltrated this environment. just simply into the sea so just like quest five is that maybe first so they're both thinking something should be fully trusted more to. the. extent. but we certainly hope find that the this is very cool just the way the seas are very close try a system and there's very few local sources of micro plastic fibers should be coming from however evidence is growing around the world from studies that like the plastic before the spike stream because releasing and they'll be found even by remote locations. you know it's a bizarre thing be a flayed on these wild remote and desolate war says feel quite exposed egypt a g.p.s. google map and zoomed out we could be a tiny speck in this and two boxes for high water. yet beneath

the surface of this magnet. since desolation is just t.v. with life and these are some of the remote to school systems. and to see what lies below the expedition submarine is launched on board the antarctic specialist susan lockhart what she sees is a stunning underwater realm composed of all manner of life life not yet touched by mankind but it's enormously at risk not least from the effects of industrial scale fishing it has one hundred percent coverage of the sea floor organism has a great three d. structure which allows other organisms to come in and if they're and a really interesting species composition and all these factors make it really difficult for a community to become after a disturbance such as bottom fishing we call these areas fundable marine ecosystem

and the estimated fourteen thousand species on the seabed vulnerable not just to fishing but to other threats like warming sea temperatures and plastics pollution and that's why the expeditions all round research is so important in the bid to protect these waters all the scientific data will be compiled to form a body of evidence in support of the sanctuary proposal and presented to the antarctic commission in less than a year's time. but the team needs to find out more about the growing threats encroaching on the region we leave the lonely waters of the weddell sea heading back through the antarctic sound a day shaped by the routine on board. everyone has different ways of filling sparrows from the top practice to running repairs of course looking for old guys and it was cooking today but they do it their way and best ever. when you look at some of the new window the customers there are the same every day and

we share that with them it is not everybody who has a few like this in their restaurant kitchen. he's afraid that's a way out here. later we had for sure making landfall on the south set the night and the tip of the antarctic peninsula. it's quite a relief to be back on dry land off but it's been careening around all over the place to me welcome play calling the six. penguins shared territory with the seals one making the most of the comfortable feathers the melting juveniles. but here to evidence once again of how the world is closing in on i talked to cap the number of terrorists twenty years ago it was around forty five thousand

a year now it's more like thirty thousand. all like me desperate to see this wilderness while it's still here. despite myself i can't help the sense of unease in surprise about the sheer numbers. are going to be saddened by the. great big cruise ship. here in pristina on top of the care and lines of terrorists . is dormant volcano which is ridiculous because it's a free will. but it does just demonstrate the. new accessibility that there is here and dangers in. these areas becoming tainted. by the footprints of humanity. next day was steaming down the west coast of the antarctic peninsula. we are going approximately sixty miles south of west area both pretty violent where we see frost free fish

we want to go. to. the vessels. from china ukraine and chile they're fishing for krill a small shrimp like creature which the whole ecosystem depends they are a keystone of the ocean cycle the diet of plankton helping to transfer c o two to the depths of the ocean. but krill is being harvested on a growing scale for fish feed and omega three or ship's nets are out and they're in the thick of the krill swarm the krill are obviously densely packed into this area up against the island is the basic just circling around the grounds to bring them out of the month to go over whales are feeding you see them blowing and whale tails disappearing flipper is showing as we go about. the krill companies say they're tapping into a resource that is sustainable but the view on board is that that is what they said

about other species like the bison in north america all called stocks off new found and before both were decimated it's essential areas such as weddell sea are protected so stocks can replenish the proposal first area would put the area thirty kilometers offshore off limits to fishing industry so when so that's a solution you can continue to fish an entire production but keep it outside of these areas currently being a protected areas because the reason they've been proposed it's because a solemn autumn for the ecosystem down here. soon will begin the long journey home but this time to make another landing and the variety of species here on livingston island is just astounding. just like the folks at heart. truly spectacular just a lot more diverse me having to use fish is

a pain when it's time petrol that often seals lentil tilts has not been another landing a quite a variety when you look at this place from the ship that's really good and you're right here if you are. teeming with life and is thriving right now and you can see all around us it's driving. you know what it was like a hundred years ago it was doing even better but right now it's still compared to most other places on earth is doing a lot better at the point of protecting it is to allow it to continue in this way we haven't yet met this place up we have the opportunity to protect. the question that the the dynamics of this place around thoughts get changing get the seal population expanding rapidly it was a penguin die off in the east last year i think it's changing krill populations are

under threat tourism. i mean this is the last great wilderness one. we need to protect. it's time to head back in for five days we crossed the stormy seas of the drake passage to south america before heading home. an opportunity to consider the wonder of what we've seen and the challenges that lie ahead in winning the protection of a precious part of our planet. and whether or not this protection will indeed be granted it in nine months time. after months of campaigning and intense lobbying by the greenpeace team it all comes down to here how about on the island of tasmania in australia with the future

of the weddell sea we've decided. this is where it's all happening the headquarters of the antarctic commission that protects and manages the planet's southernmost waters. everything from territorial claims to fishing rights are being thrashed out right now by twenty five government delegations historically the departure point for several antarctic expeditions today hobart is the place where the fate of the continent hangs in the balance. after a voyage together in antarctica i hook up again with will he's been lobbying hard for the weddell sea sentry since i last saw him in the news he brings his unexpected to say the least it's not looking great i think we've seen a real. a bit of a disaster of a meeting to be honest something that noma's really expect they were i we were always in the knowledge that was going to be hard and then what we've seen is

a few countries just really undermine the process and essentially block any progress on any issue not just not just the antarctic ocean sanctuary but actually progress in any field good luck thanks for teaching it in the next twenty four hours goodness me. i'm hoping for the best perhaps we'll hear some good news tomorrow. it's decision day and the country delegations have been locked in top journalists aren't allowed in so we wait and wait. we have development something's afoot just had a. so we're going to go and try and find out what happened. to that is the head of the indian league agent talking to australia host and you told us what he's saying is that it's come out of the court sorry to reveal to us that we're

dead in the interest not to be doctored it's just not going to have. it's just devastating news are cops come at you and how. how the greenpeace t.v. right now now let's say the other delegations all the other n.g.o.s who supported this proposal it's just wanted to nations it go the way to russia and china. it confirms will's worst fears but it's not until much later we can speak to him. he's devoted so much to this project. it's terrible nice i mean it's. it's just a complete failure on the behalf of the commission on behalf of you know the millions of people who sign this petition who want a visit to happen and we've just seen the entire thing trashed here twenty two countries have to the twenty five supporter they believe this is a good proposal but china russia norway you know one by one. three different means

and different reasons have just taken it apart and kicked into the long grass and from a personal point of view you invested so much time and energy and passion and heart into this. what's what's it's horrible you know it's. nearly two years of us working on it. in a novia you know there are other good proposals on the table and this proposal in this is still a good one. and we'll get a chance next year to resubmitted but something's going to have to shift in the next year. it is intensely disappointing for everybody involved but it does just. the challenge we face in protecting this planet evolves especially in the face of a current climate of nationalist and political self-interest. it is not just about the whales and the penguins in the wonder of antarctica it's about us us and our

descendants we do we want to leave them a world without wilderness without healthy fish stocks with the ecosystems in tatters. with the first generation to realize the gravity of this crisis. that we may be the last to be able to do something about. a policy imposed decades ago woman thought that she would still look to be goods and when he boards changing demographics across asia with far reaching consequences for creating a pool of socially disadvantaged young men so you have the system or people at

every level or being it being given money money to agree to star as ation our money to get other people to be the sterilisation out there examines the politics of population control. news is happening faster than ever before from different places from different people and you need to be part of bats you need to be able to reach people wherever they are and that means being across all social media platforms this is where our audience lives as well as in front of a t.v. they're on the smartphone their own let's have their own their confusion. and that's the way al-jazeera is of all into a true media network. short films of hope and inspiration. a series of short personal stories that highlight the human triumph against the odds.

al-jazeera selects. this is al jazeera. hello i'm sam is a than this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next sixty minutes torrential rain hampers the search for survivors in indonesia the number of dead from saturday's tsunami climbs to four hundred twenty nine. gunman am a suicide bomber attacked libya's foreign ministry at least four people including the attackers are killed in the capital. another night of angry protests in sudan

president promises changes he speaks publicly about the crisis for the first time. a road map for man bridge here announces plans for the withdrawal of u.s. backed kurdish forces from the city in northern syria. and the scaping venezuela the search for food in colombia increasing number of indigenous people are struggling to find their next meal. torrential rain in indonesia is hampering the search for survivors of saturday's tsunami the number killed in western java has risen to four hundred twenty nine with one hundred fifty four.