will host around 6000 journalists during the games, and the building is expected to open next week. at your new update at this hour coming up next is our d. w documentary, and arctic a message from another planet. and remember, there's always more on our website at w dot com or social media, e, w. i play richardson in berlin for me in the team working behind the scenes. thank you so much for your company. the news was right in front of them. then suddenly we agreed to postpone the or olympic games that tokyo with 2020 from of course, during the qualifying ground floor, sports heroes down during lockdown starts july,

19th on dw ah, the antarctic continent, the mystery natural wonders covered with ice 4 kilometers. deep temperatures can draw to minus 93 degrees celsius, 75 percent of our planets. fresh water is locked up in east ice sheet and yet it's classified as the largest desert on earth. this could be the only place in the world where diverse countries have rallied together in the name of peace and

science to protect the environment, the part about the ice and the temperatures. sure, but the part about peace in the environment. it's hard to believe the not just because i'm concerned about nature, but also because i live in syria in 2009. so i don't have much faith left in peace or in the international community. but i'd love to be proven wrong. we've come to pointer arena, where the polar research vessel espied us is picking up a group of spanish scientists to take them to antarctica, already nervous, you'll get used to it or that it's no big deal.

we don't, but i think it's just that it's amazing. i didn't got a window, there's a lot of bunk. it's done. it's just the last night was wrong. we went to bed early, but i had a hard time falling asleep. but i must have slept just for hours because i was so nervous about the trim. the medicaid me i embarked on this journey to explore the myths of antarctica. ah, after one day at sea, we reached the end of the world. news at the southern most tip of argentine, a gen ed, waco is still

a 1000 kilometers from the continent of antarctica. this is the drake passage at ease and wind. sure and freely here whipping a violent seas in one of the earth, roughest waterways. but i wasn't very little for the summons. they said the worst story to day this year. it was our 2nd trip back from arctic. you said if you were about 18 hours from south america, when a severe weather system hit us from the starboard side, we said 7 meter high wave winds of up to 50. not even what ends, i think when was every time the crew sales into the drake passage, they have their mobile phones, camera re, always been when it comes amongst a could be told. and these are the outlines of cape horn, a notorious maritime graveyard that harbors the sunken wrecks of hundreds of ships

. even today, the drake passage commands respect. everyone batton's down the hatches. it wasn't so dramatic on our trip though. sort of that will look at i'm which luckily technology has improved a lot to day before setting sail, we can check the weather forecast to find the best window for crossing the passage of the office. the adventure may not be as wild as it once was. i but it's still beautiful. me, i oh. and article has been subject to territorial disputes. for centuries. the passage went 1st,

sales by spaniards, francisco the orsis in 1525. 50 years later, it was discovered by the english explore sir francis drake and bears his name to this day. or in. in the early 20th century, 7 countries laid territorial claims to parts of antarctica. the overlapping claims of the united kingdom, argentina, and julie cause tensions that erupt it into armed conflict between britain and argentina in 1952, as the cold war set in the last thing the world needed was a new geo political flash point. it was that realization that gave rise to the and arctic treaty. many people including scientists, were looking for ways to cooperate. and there was the international physical year in 1957, 58. and that worked out so well that there was this idea that there could be cooperation in antarctica. the

they found that there was a way and that's shown an article for the treaty to set aside the claims. and to say that there would be a demilitarization. but it's also, as you may know, one of the 1st arms control treaties. so it was focused on keeping the peace in that respect as well. but none of that was the result of goodwill alone. the extreme climate made it difficult to exploit the region economically, and the u. s. and soviet union stake their territorial claims quite late in the game. the 4 days after leaving printer us the s betty this reaches antarctica.

everyone is excited. we got up at 5 in the morning to catch our 1st glimpse of the coastline. what we hadn't expected was the fog now we are doing a half miles away and you can't see anything. oh, a few hours later the fog lift and at last we can see antarctica. the 1st stop is king, george island. the spanish team is delivering supplies to the order of lion station us and our cooperation is running smoothly. so if i want to see that the antarctic treaty is very effective under its turns,

this locations devoted solely to science. you saw played a key role in getting all countries to set aside. there are other interesting, at least publicly. and it's been that way for a very long time, and not only are you going fortunately, the same is not true in other parts of the world that are usually economic interests. take precedence over scientific cooperation and you come up with most of this model be exported beyond antarctica. when those are some that when that's a good question, is something many on the planet or it comes up on it. because king george island offer is the easiest access to an article. it has the greatest concentration of stations on the entire continent. there are facilities here belonging to uruguay, russia, chile, argentina, and brazil, china, poland, peru, ecuador, the czech republic, south korea, and bulgaria. the antarctic treaty regulates how many new stations can open so that

it doesn't get too crowded earlier. it's always better to kind of exist peacefully with your neighbors and get along. the 1st thing we did was to establish good relations with all our neighbors. cooperation is vital in antarctica when the tension between the united states and russia. that's it affect the competition in antarctica. i wouldn't say there's no effect, but by and large, the cooperation has continued. and that doesn't mean that those tensions are in some respects in the background somewhere, but at least in terms of the antarctic programs in the arctic programs and the work of the scientists together by enlarged that, that continues. in 2004 russia imported would from siberian pines, its national tree to construct a small orthodox church here in antarctica,

critic say it's a sly way to stake a territorial claim. which a land station has its own church to. it also has a school for the children of soldiers station on the base the around it's the closest thing you'll find to a settlement and antarctica. in the 1900 seventy's argentina's military dictatorships and pregnant women to give birth and antarctica to underscore its territorial claim to land dictator august open. no shame copied the tactic, but it was widely viewed as provocative. and after the birth of 8 argentinians and 3 to land, both countries ended the policy. today, more subtle strategies are used to amend territorial claim as seen on chalet and television to run and will be because we partially disguised whereas july and i

talked to julian and talked to cause it will be mostly sunny. what actually and think about their countries claims to antarctica, i would up and then call it could be on there isn't much public debate on the topic don't recorded when i was little people did talk about it a bit. but later on the political discourse subsided. a day when people primarily associated with environmental protection, logical, where that's the trend i've observed, especially among young people who don't really sat in this and they sell in the hole in it for me. williams, my hardly to see them out for us. it's simple. i think we sit and talk to us place where many nations come back, get us on the same date and there's no reason why we should be more entitled to any one else so they can escape what you think we can save antarctica. if we fail to do

the same and other places you can do it. i think it's exactly because we've made with mistakes and other places. we have a short saving antarctica. the spain has 2 stations and ought to come. its national research center operates the one carlos the 1st station on livingston island. it was built in the late 1980 s, and remodeled in 2008 into a modern facility. that looks a bit like a space station. the dictation is summer. it doesn't need to with the conditions you'd expect to encounter in

antarctica. danny wind, but 2 days ago we had 800 kilometers an hour which tries the wind chill factor down to minus 20 degrees celsius. had only lopez and his team study the continent geology, which they say is of essential importance to the rest of the planet. and article affects the whole world climate. doesn't it? public other 3 on the planet cold factory, you'll see on a lot of it's really cold in the arctic to but not to the same again. and a lot of there's a lot more ice in that article in the architect that the water reaches as far as the syrian and insulin and continues to circulate around

the northern hemisphere. these waters sometimes flow all the way up to the arctic getting where they cool back down again. motor driving the circulation is that article one of the most important projects at the one carlos the 1st station? is it study of the heard and johnson glaciers? and this would be really valuing the space, the mass balance advantage, because she found the gains of us have been granted that and if it's senior director opposite is the though, is it getting colder in antarctica? and she says, then for the another, yes it is getting cold, but our measurements are limited to the last 15 years. we are trying to fix studies need to examine the period of at least 30 is if we close. so we can see that there was a gradual temperature in 10 years and the temperature dropping the.