the ice disappears earlier and it keeps retreating it's a huge the last 2 years have been smelling roughly. makes it harder which makes it. our future depends on what happens here in one of the most fragile ecosystems on earth. northern lights the arctic circle starts december 21st on w. . the field of science has been helping humans understand the world and has read our lives easier from prehistoric inventions water and communication technology watch me also use science to give back to me by studying renewable sources of energy by

building satellites that help us get to the water levels by turning we used improve news about the details to me just a few want to be sure we introduce you to some people and projects who are using scientific inquiry to help the and why that alone welcome to equal india i'm sorry that i. our 1st stop today is a rural maharashtra investor and this region is one of the worst places in the country to be a farmer was distant droughts and green for many a farmer who give up farming and become an industrial. but if scientific data accurately predict weather patterns and provide farmers with information they could still have a short and their primary life and organization in the region helping farmers best exactly.

a look at a smartphone. all he needs to know. now is the ideal time to fertilize his fields he also knows which fertilizer to use and in which quantity the 40 year old resident of shifu village uses the farm precise app which is specially developed for farmers in the indian state of maharashtra the app improves by making cultivation and livestock farming easier to organize. when to be then direction the sounds of the birds and when they make these sounds my final generations used to use these as indicators to identify climate patterns will it again tomorrow we live in the day after will it rain at all this is how our elders used to predict the weather when in a few years later we got the information via the radio then through the television

after that through newspapers our farming practices would be entirely based on that most of the time these estimates were incorrect. they were going to get on the. the mainstream weather forecasts cover entire regions but local weather conditions can. a completely different. climate change is also making the weather increasingly unpredictable. dime and again droughts and floods lead to harvest failures in recent years. the watershed trust look for ways to help these farmers and to combat poverty in rural regions the result was farm precise and easy to operate after which functions even with only a weak signal. in these early release. in strong argumentative weather

stations in the program that is so has to make a community of it and we have trained local. using taking observation from. shared with the community as their technology are the ones. we started getting online on an hourly basis. used to noted down the daily information about the. forecasts and shared with the community. the farm precise up office 5 day weather forecasts and up to date information for good field management all in simple language and easy to use. resisting whether whether we used to use any 40 lies or pesticide that we could get our hands on. but with the farm precise if i don't have enough information about a particular fertilizer or best aside i can just take

a photograph of the crop and post it on the chrissie songbird for them in the app. within an hour we receive feedback and advice about what we should do about it or if we should use a particular substance in a particular proportion added particular time of day. in 2014 farmers in the state of maharashtra pradesh were hit by weather related losses totaling. some 900000000 euros. since then the app hasn't only provided assistance for planting fertilization and harvesting crops. the farmers can also find the latest market prices and work out the best time to sell their produce as a result pascoe mostly has reduced his losses and he's even turning a profit now. mino she mostly also lives in the region and use the app to dent a whole farm as well. she says barely a thought of all women here on a smartphone she shares her knowledge and wants to motivate other women to take

advantage of the available tools laugh at what i'm about climate change is making farming more and more difficult and we need technology to help us with this i started a self-help group for 15 women and i encourage them to use this because i've learnt a lot from it and they and their families can learn a lot from it they're starting to appreciate it and see its benefits are there we. farm precise developers see over $3500.00 farmers now use their free app which is so far still only available in hindi. that number could easily rise when the watershed organization trust puts the out online in another t.v. languages. now we may not know it but a lot of the use in our life come from fossil fuels undoubtedly is

a detriment to the bobbit plastics in the ocean or mountains of bio degradable released scientists have been looking for substitutes to constrict and sometimes they've been successful we met a professor in germany who seemingly magical things. in a working substitute for. this building is getting added thermal insulation and damp roofing from polystyrene 5 every year over 10000000 tons of the synthetic material are turned into everything from facade cladding to disposable bowls and cups and packaging. but one extremely useful the downside of the material is that it is essentially non-biodegradable and takes centuries to break down and as it does it releases miniscule particles into the ground water supplies. this man has

a plan to replace the plastic pollutant since 2008. poor and his team have been looking into an environmentally friendly alternative pop corn. similar to polystyrene foam. consists of a mass of cavities filled with their poor. can see them when you dissect a piece of popcorn and examine it under the microscope. that's what makes it so light. like the mark the research and his team have already used popcorn to create kitchen furniture they're saying manufacture is the range of potential applications for popcorn the 1st step is to turn it into a massive granules all the same size the original maize is grown in germany well that is land intensive on the plus side the material will help to reduce fossil fuel consumption. and you can it tastes

a lot like popcorn except there's no sugar or truckload of course so the taste is a bit boring. the granules have been pressed together to form sheets panels with plant proceeding providing the bonding agent as opposed to synthetic chemicals this makes the material compostable and even suitable as animal fodder. the team of pioneers in the field. but they also used a hot egg on to compare the thermal conductivity of polystyrene foam to that of popcorn and then measure the heat that penetrates through to the back in the case of polystyrene foam the sensor reads $28.00 degrees celsius while the popcorn board is even better at absorbing the heat here the reading is under $25.00 degrees. and you could use it in particular in areas of india to provide buildings with

insulation from the heat or cold. houses with the panels in the walls or on the facades also or you can also use them as insulation for solid building. material also performs better in the flammability test the polystyrene burns up at a frightening speed immediately beginning to melt and release toxic gases. subjected to the same flame the panel of popcorn barely catches fire. in this case the damage was limited to the hours or layout of the grandson being singed. kalin patch is the design in the chain. she started experimenting with popcorn 2 and

a half years ago and has now many affected her 1st pieces of furniture with the revolutionary material. and we might soon be seeing child sized chairs and tables like these replacing their plastic counterparts. when they cannot once children have grown out of the furniture they can be shredded and recycled to create another new material. in moving and after being replanted one can in turn be made into a new items and be done by the object of the house have a state. the research team is working with a number of partners in the packaging and construction industries who realize the potential only reason the poor is happy to pass on the fruits of years of research on the material. pasko on screen or he hopes to see environmentally friendly products made from popcorn replacing polystyrene foam on

a large scale and the sooner the better. the 1st popcorn packaging is due to go on the market in the fall of 2021 and will hopefully help to reduce the world's growing mountains of plastic waste. fossil fuels cause harm to our planet yes we all agree to that but to grow means on a large scale as an alternative to plastics we need large areas of for thailand which would otherwise be used for inable crops in the real world how feasible are environmentally friendly substitutes let's ask specialist research was in germany to find out what. the seeds of the rake see plant healed food oil and meal feed for livestock. now has

developed a means to combat that space. it's eco friendly and could replace the plastic foil and toxic chemicals standardly used to protect crumbs. of money compared to a standard total such as plastic mulch for oil and natural material that inhibits weed growth would be preferable. to the. maze is a staple food in much of the world and it's also the source of ethyl alcohol used as a bio fuel for cars and trucks it's said to be less damaging to the environment than regular gas so maize and rapeseed at 2 important natural resources. at the campus of the technical university of new nick a team of scientists want to determine under what conditions use of these resources is truly sustainable. the broom has developed contains rake seed starch and other naturally occurring substances. it can be sprayed on the ground

around crops such as vines to inhibit the growth of we. it's an alternative to the plastic mulch foil much used in farms around the world before oil helps maintain moisture in the soil and prevent. most of it is made from conventional plastic which is made from petroleum. spray on alternative has considerable advantages. some of those conflicts it's made entirely of naturally occurring raw materials most are renewables and are sealed to me troll. and water. maybe it's some versa tiled. food feed and biofuel materials made from expanded corn might eventually replace palestine in insulation and packaging that would reduce c

o 2 emissions but is that enough to make a natural result sustainable. it is not just about emitting less as. we also consider social criteria fair remuneration in the respective countries. regarding the agricultural context where does the maize come from from land that is biologically high value with a lot of biodiversity or fields where old growth forests or rain forests used to be . a further criterion for sustainability is where the materials can be recycled most conventional plastics company p.t. from say bottles can be used. but much too much plastic waste and stop littering the environment slowly crumbling into ever smaller fragments. micro plastics can be found in the soil just about everywhere they come from a range of sources rubbish dumps and sewage sludge used as fertilizer on fields we

don't yet know what effect these particles have on the structure of soils or whether they affect soil fertility worked. the spray on rape seed mulch by contrast eventually washes away at a predictable pace. on some of our material is biodegradable whereas plastic foil often soiled and contaminated with other chemicals and has to be disposed of or recycled with great care our material can stay out in the field. as it decomposes all that remains there are a few non toxic salts the to kyron they check anyway it's a home that's product derived from nature. there's definitely a concern. before finding the wealth effect vollmer team too old for substituting plastics but what if you want to look at existing supply and demand models and find

a solution that big bang will need for example it has had a long tradition of joint production and cultivation but today follows a producing excess joint and knocking buddhists in all of it leaving behind a huge surplus a local scientist seems to have found the buffett solution to this problem. it looks like plastic it feels like plastic but it isn't it's a plant based product. part about you like you can make at this thing it would be the poor packaging materials that could be done or marketing material you could with the government by getting material it would be the. shopping bag single you from paying back every. con has spent years coming up with a substitute for plastic the raw material he works with is jute from which he creates a water soluble base 40 he then adds our natural starch based binding agent.

most recently in one part. and then we use some other chemicals i'm not mentioning these chemicals because that is their more secure part of this it is should be and then we get this. final. product which can then be made into a for oil now con is hoping that his invention dubbed dishonestly will draw global interest. this is their different polypropylene you can see that morning if you could produce that drop this is. the group that does it before the market here are in particularly in beijing but when you've gone this might finally. he is still there is not a drop of plastic here. just like. after

a while ash is all that remains. this is a. land where probably more jute will be grown like here the plant is the number one natural fiber grown in bangladesh it's composed primarily of cellulose the main component in sauna. is one of 3000000 jute farmers in bangladesh what he's harvesting now he only sowed 4 months ago. the climate in bangladesh is ideal for growing this crop which requires plenty of water heat and humidity and getting negative to the jute fibers are found inside the stands and have to be separated from the rest of the plant. it's painstaking manual labor the whole family lends a hand. once again it's not been a good year for the pharma floodwaters washed away

a part of his crop and prices have dropped so he won't get as much for what he's managed to harvest. you have to borrow money just to make ends meet. prior to that was i have no idea what will happen alternately i guess jeered when they tell me the government isn't buying much because demand from foreign markets is down so they don't offer us good prices but i have to sell it to them anyway. around 40000000 people in bangladesh make their living from either directly or indirectly. project could change their lives but. at the moment it's still at the experimentation stage. the government is funding the pilot. production at this factory. but this new machine will soon be producing a ton of sonali a day. maybe. a whole or

because of the slaughter of the. wrongs and. the jews industry is one of the biggest economic sectors in bangladesh. it's viewed as a kind of national treasure closely linked with the state's founding and for many years its only export many here hopes on and he could help breathe new life into the industry. the digital revolution and the big it has provided us with has given us a big push to the more and more environmentally friendly young people around the world are leading this trend and are more aware and deliberate about protecting them. in the next part of. the city we met one such group of students that's the. 1000000 dollar limit livable is best achieved with the help of people who live here

via where using new technology to contribute to a better understanding of traffic. i would like to see the city authorities and the general public taking care of the trees. these students are applying their coding and programming skills to the development of applications and devices to make cities more ecologically sustainable. it looks relaxed but they're actually taking part in an intensive summer school at city lab . the veterans have almost doubled around us is full of technology and had microcontrollers like this you can see how much of it though both invisible and indispensable in a. every day lineups what's really well hey we want to make things with them selves . at various workshops during the 9 days of the summer school

the participants develop all kinds of ideas and inventions all in a relaxed atmosphere outside of the classroom the city lab is a venture that brings people in berlin together to work on sustainable urban development with muir photos for months i like the summer school for massive we meet outdoors in the fresh air and work in a pretty interesting technology and topics team so much we've got in the on line you have some online lectures but now we're working together on group projects so when it's a misstep because everything has been remote since the coronavirus here and now at long last we can work together again is the topics are interesting and some. $54.00 students from 4 berlin universities took part in the summer school this year . this online lecture by professor a couple names was about digitalisation and sustainability she says urban development processes need to be more inclusive. meet zach and de to be made

available to very different groups in society including people who don't have much experience with the internet you can't write computer programs how can they nonetheless access data and use it to develop something new and because. most of the workshop participants are studying business information systems and are already used to working with technology and computer programs. they relish the opportunity to brainstorm and work on innovative sustainable and eco friendly projects. yeah your line on going to compound i saw an intern up on it i've used to solar panels and a lithium battery to build a device to charge a mobile phone to someone small run a development board and a lot of all. it lets you work even when there's no external source of electricity the way off grid.

among the projects developed by the students at the summer school. a new system of hydroponics for city plants and a digital map of sustainability initiatives. to begin for numb time digitize asian wasn't considered to be very important in germany and that includes the government it requires major investments so if you want to digitalize an entire country it takes a lot of resources that's also the case with promoting sustainability and there is still a long way to go off as if you mean upsides. these students are seizing the moment to press ahead to make perhaps eventually the larger world smarter greener and more sustainable. the you was of science and technology can help intentional action for the good of the and i hope even cottage 2 to be your

scientific book to help the moderate in what have a big or small can i'll leave you with that part and see you again next week until then good bye.

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trying. to come to. one giant problem and may merely be in no mood to see a peculiar. buy in a fuel economy. by how well climate change affect us and our children by. morning. dot com slash water. the fight against the corona virus pandemic. now has the rate of infection been developing the. measures are being taken. what does the latest research say. information and context. the coronavirus of data the code it seems special monday to friday on g.w. . the some argue 5 keys to see for food.

keep clean to prevent contamination. for a draw and cook foods to avoid cross contamination. cooks 32 killed microorganisms. keep food safe temperatures call to prevent bacterial growth. use safe water and safe for all materials to avoid kentucky. food producers are the ones primarily responsible for the safety of the food you buy but you can protect yourself and your family from diseases in olney by plying the 5

keys to see food use them you also have a role to play. this is video of you news live from berlin germany reports a record number of corona virus infections for a 2nd day with nearly 30000 new cases the pressure is growing for a new nationwide lockdown to begin before christmas. also coming up after all night talks a new leaders agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent in the

next decade is this target to a vicious or not enough. plus free to protest on the international stage the united states olympic and paralympic committee says it won't sanction its athletes for peaceful demonstrations in support of racial and social justice. as welcome to the program and we begin here in germany where the latest coronavirus numbers show a dramatic spike in new cases over the past day the country has hit a new high of nearly 30000 cases and $598.00 people have died that's the highest daily total yes weeks of partial lockdown have been slow the spread of infection enough much tougher restrictions see almost inevitable now with political momentum building for

a harder lock down over the holidays. with only 2 weeks to go until christmas the looming question across germany is will a hard lock down come before or after the holidays. at its weekly briefing on wednesday germany's robert costa institute said it was alarmed and that it was bracing for a significant increase in case numbers. but if it's always going to ensure that we typically end before it's a meeting to rush an exponential growth put into our story. the situation is especially problematic in assisted living facilities according to german authorities residents of nursing homes are at more risk than ever. currently receiving double the amount of outbreaks in assisted living facilities than in spring and every outbreak affects a lot of people are tough and. several german states are now considering tightening the measures already in place berlin's government is considering closing all non-essential retail before christmas the busiest period of the year winter break

may be extended and schools could return to distance learning is below but i believe these 2 and a half 3 weeks will give us plenty of opportunities regarding disease control. state leaders are now hoping to set out a coordinated plan in a meeting with chancellor angela merkel. if you get a moment of fun also if you miss the gathering looks likely to take place on sunday . we are very interested in getting together as quickly as possible in order to rapidly gain clarity about the path our country will follow used to open door at one point they're cute. in light of recent developments religious services over the holidays are also being scrutinized. then i mean if there is a possibility of a religious gathering endangering lives i'll be the 1st to call things off. the so-called most wonderful time of the here now marked by deep concerns

a new lockdown in germany isn't a matter of if but rather when. simon young joins me now simon a new high of nearly 30000 cases 598 people that have died one day all that despite the restrictions already imposed why are the figures still rising. well guess there are a number of different explanations that are being offered for the rising infection numbers one of the things is to look at where the disease has been spreading earlier in the year it was really concentrated in several hot spots and of course that made it somewhat easier to deal with now. really kovan 1000 is spread across germany and that's putting a strain on health services to deal with also as you mentioned in the report the the disease seems to be affecting older people more back in the spring and the

initial spike of course older people in care homes and old people's homes were affected but then during the summer it seemed to spread more to younger groups now it's back in the older population of germany's 20000 dead 13000 over 80 so it's a very worrying picture and it makes it difficult for storage is to work out their strategy but germany's interior minister jose often made his position very clear today saying germany has wasted the advantage it managed to gain during the spring the only chance we have to get in control of the situation is a lock down but it needs to be immediate if we waited till christmas will have to continue fighting these numbers for months. of a statement how much agreement is there in berlin with this call for an immediate lockdown. well what we're seeing is

a growing number of states announcing measures and pushing for tougher lockdowns barden burton bag has announced that there will be curfews that's to say restrictions on people leaving their homes. from from as early as tomorrow north rhine-westphalia another logged state in the west saying that schools will tell their pupils to stay at home from monday and possibly even all non-essential original shops will close so obviously these are very tough measures more and more states are thinking about it and there is a push for unity among the states because people say that that the public will accept such rules much more if all states move together but they're not going to wait i think in some cases for for a meeting with the chancellor a lot of the state premiers are saying we have to push ahead now and impose tough lockdowns you know his political correspondent simon thank you. e.u.

leaders have set inhibitions taguba for do think carbon emissions by 55 percent by the end of the decade compared to emission levels in $998.00 followed a night of intense talks in brussels with eastern european nations more dependent on fossil fuels seeking clarity on how to fund the transition to clean energy. and judging by their faces there was no doubt it had been a long night here in brussels. after hungary and poland had finally agreed to drop their veto on the entire budget leaders could get on with tackling what was the commission's most pressing issue before the pandemic struck the climate crisis. stuff you had to see all the cheating this was worth a sleepless night i can't imagine what would have happened if we weren't able to reach this result is ted now i think she's talking about the e.u. use new more ambitious climate goals compared to 990 the plan now for sea slashing

greenhouse emissions by 55 percent in the next 10 years by investing in green energy technology the e.u. has pledged to become climate neutral by 2050 the previous target of 40 percent had been criticized as being far too low but some eastern countries with coal dependent economies feared serious consequences they demanded more clarity on funding to ease the transition according to the outcome of the meeting each member states individual situation will be addressed level to this year and will is to take into account that different countries had different starting points to take up the issue with the spirit of equality and solidarity. to the polish prime minister's office tweeted we have an agreement which creates the conditions for a just transformation of the polish energy an economy. with another major obstacle out of the way it was time for uncle americal to wrap up germany's you council presidency the stuffings are going to i can tell you the german presidency was

a lot of fun although we weren't able to achieve a lot of things that we planned this is all for me last time and as a. comb 2021 portugal will be taking over now let's bring in the xix of director of greenpeace international jennifer morgan jennifer champagne corks popping their greenpeace all these measures too little too late oh i wish we could have pop some champagne corks but they are way too little and they are too late it's never too late i guess i would say but i think if you look at the desire of the e.u. to lead and to actually forge a way forward that would address the climate emergency we needed a 65 percent target not a 55 percent target which is not up to snuff what the scientists are calling for but that doesn't sound that much of a difference i mean how much of a difference does this make anyway if you look at global emissions and what the

e.u. has just decided to cut the levels and makes a big difference i mean i think if you look at where the e.u. is emissions are currently looking to go it's a 46 percent reduction with existing measures so although 55 percent sounds quite big it's actually just a small incremental shift of what they were already planning to do and the e.u. is important globally it's a major player and market it's still one of the you know large greenhouse gas emitting countries but clearly we need the united states to come in we need china to come in but for that we wanted to see a real transformation and a recognition of how little time we have to have global emissions so is the e.u. in your view rather a role model to present to the u.s. to india to china. or does it really make a difference. it makes a difference but i think the tragedy is that today the e.u. last a moment at last

a moment after having climate strikes from youth across europe electing people to drive forward to a just and green future and that could have put even more pressure on the united states that the biden harris administration steps in now we're looking east a bit to see how the asian economies are going to move but it's all really i just want to say it's around this 2030 target and how much we keep in fossil fuel in the ground how much we're transforming our mobility systems and there you see that the devil's in the details and the laws for the short term really matter of adele's in the do so it's quite interesting about this that the nuclear still plays an important role in the old is how does that go down with greenpeace we don't think that's a good idea i think nuclear has so many risks and it's so expensive and i think in a year when we know from the international renewable energy agency that 90 percent

of new energy generation capacity installed around the world has been renewables and that it is cheaper than coal it is cheaper than other sources that's the way to go but no less reliable though is oh it's reliable you you need to get a balance right you can get currently up to about a 70 percent mix of renewables and some days you have 100 percent renewables on the grid there's more work that needs to be done but if you were to take the money that's going to billions going into fossil fuel subsidies and put those into the questions of renewables and storage you'd have a breakthrough pretty quickly i think do you think this will do it for a moment dommage. i think the economic damage of what's happening are the cause of the impacts of climate change so just think about the fires that occur in california or in australia or in siberia think about the drought and the impacts to the agricultural system the transformation of her green and just world has so many

benefits there needs to be support for those workers who need to transition into new fields that's the just transition that needs children her but the economics do not add up if you don't know how to keep these impacts in mind and the death and damages that are occurring around the world jennifer morgan executive director of greenpeace international thank you very much for joining us here on news thank you and to sports now american athletes will now have a bit more freedom when competing on the international stage the united states olympic and paralympic committee says it will not such an athlete's for peacefully and respectfully demonstrate in support of racial and social justice the olympic and paralympic games in the past us of these were bound from competing for protesting in mexico 68 olympics the so-called black power salute by tommy smith

and john carlos resulted in both being expelled from the u.s. track team the gesture was rebuked as a patriotic. today that same protest would be permitted by the u.s. under the new policy handed down by the country's olympic committee team usa athletes are encouraged to advocate for racial and social justice and be a positive force for change some u.s. athletes were proactive in already using their platform in november the u.s. men's soccer team don jackets with socially conscious messages ranging from. tallahassee to unity before a match the u.s. olympic committee has called on the international olympic committee to recognize that protests focused on human rights and social justice should be welcome the i.o.c. confirmed that athletes are still banned from any form of protesting at the games following a tidal wave of protests in u.s.

sports in athletes who breach that rule are subject to discipline the tokyo games are next summer while the next winter games are in beijing in 2022. and that's it from me on the news same phenomenon update for you at the. next up is your business with rob was so don't go away and don't forget you can get all the latest news informations on our website. for me and entire news team thanks for watching live as well as. tarrytown.

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