so throughout the day we are expecting different sorts of services to come here and still yeah. clear the area of that water on to look further into the damage other. thank you so much. our reporter anna sir oster there in downtown berlin. you are watching dw news from berlin, coming up next week, got a documentary film for you, the north drift, how plastic ends up in the arctic course and get all the latest news information anytime you want on our website at d, w dot com. i'm terry martin. thanks for watching our games on the melting ice the reporter tracks down the arctics major players. and if you see something that looked like davis

founded has to do with military head starts december 23rd on d w. ah. i've always been drawn to the far north, pristine nature and escape from civilization. ah. almost like being on another planet. at least that's what i thought. and you come and help me out here in just a 2nd there. ah, this is horrible. you see here becoming

a plastic akela, sorrow. the whole earth is just so this, these layers that different generation, if you would just figure out how much plastic there is just along this little coastline, it's hot breaking that everywhere. visit thick. and now i'm here helping in in you it pick up garbage on a deserted island in the arctic ocean. and not just a little a lot, the rac, this across it and i, i live in a health soon so it is, you look at how the color of this and i want to touch this looks like it's from u. k. is broken. this is

a boy maybe and that's not a very new region expression. it looks like it's been in the ocean for very long side to had with her. ah okay, it's running slow us, man, i'm a stuff cornice. my name is stephanie cornel. i'm a filmmaker from dresden. most of my work has been in advertising. these jobs have taken me around the globe, including to low fulton in arctic, norway, which is where i gotta know chris lewis. he ensign. he's

a local and we work together on a film. we hit it off right away. one day he took me kayaking. we paddled to an island in the middle of the arctic ocean. it's inaccessible by foot. i think we've all seen pictures of polluted beaches before, but so much plastic waste in the arctic. i had no idea yet ah, this is the louis vuitton, i understanding of miss matthews, and there was even a german b, a bullshit with russia in the middle of the arctic clifton in october line

. and now when i walked through the streets in germany, again, i see garbage everywhere. it's like something changed. i didn't notice it before, and it makes me crazy. because i don't want the garbage to end up in the arctic. but how likely is it to end up in the arctic? the garbage would have to drift downstream about 600 kilometers to hamburg and from there to the north sea. then the atlantic, in the end, a piece of plastic would have to have traveled over 2500 kilometers to end up near chris in the arctic. so i, so i started doing research associate the up north in here. then out there from down here,

of course it would be really wild if it did come from the east and current home. if i release the bottle in the in the german river, alba, across the coastline, could it end up in the arctic? if you release a bottle on the german coast line and it stays afloat, the chances that it ends up in the arctic i think would be 95 percent. i am eric pennsville and i'm a climate physicist, an oceanographer here at utrecht university. now what happens to a piece of plastic or something that you throw in the ocean is slightly more complicated, a piece of plastic and also sing to the sea floor. it can also end up and beach. so there's ample opportunity for a piece of plastic to not end up in the arctic, but get stung. and unfortunately, we don't know, we don't have food enough simulations or models and theory yet to exactly calculate what the probability is in reality, something to go from germany all the way into into the arctics. because what we

found out a few years ago is that the amount of plastic that is currently drifting at the surface of the ocean is probably less than one percent of all the plastic that has ever gone into the ocean. so 20 times more plastic enters the ocean in a single year than we can now account for the surface of the ocean. 99 percent of all the plastic is probably missing. so domain name now is to figure out where the plastic is or so been healthy. dear. com. and so i came up with the idea of simply taking a bottle, feeding it with the gps transmitter and watching what happened, the input i needed help

me. i law bennett my not once organ. when i asked my neighbor, i knew he was studying technical design at the dresden university of technology. paula, his name is paul vice. i thought, hey, he's a tinkerer and a real tech head, or i'll ask him and i'm taking to his simplest idea, was to build a 3 d models, which i would then have printed them, whatever. you can then just put the gps tracker inside a seal and thompson on also saudi. i idea that's the planned and now it's just a matter of trying to are correct.

yeah. here we are. following up down there at the loveseat. i think i'll walk for myself. good. wow. i'm excited. okay. ready? okay. ready now as alright. k o and one. hines. sly. 2 on 3, right. whole

and i didn't really want to hear the bottom story. terrence oh, i see flashes, i'm sorry. yeah. no idea what the bottles supposed to be. i'm still getting a gps signal. i was right there at the spot, but the bottles just not there. you fascist anita. although you sunk does not have i think so thing, but maybe it filled up and it's now on the water. i well i got a lot of rocks that we have moved, piles of garbage instead, right where my bottle supposed to be more garbage. more of a full trash cans was, but you know what? i found what he is another message in a bottle. what? so what i'll have to break it open a. do you have

a double eye because he did a broken trash. can i pay you? glad you found my message in a bottle. i drew this picture for you. my name's carlo. i'm 5 years old and i live in dresden. i would be very happy to get a letter from you. sonny. greetings, carlo. carlo did a nice job with 36 kilometers later i realized that this is all more complicated than i thought. our 1st drifter was a flop, but hey, at least i've got a new pen pal. i so call me like so we needed

a new boy. miss the one that wouldn't sink on. we also needed more battery powered sola, maybe by through the law. does. i'm a contract. i'm almost forever. that would be cool. circ were nasty. p 68, it's unthinkable is info all ah ah, you see the water space that's bad. stop

him and i think we have to redo it all. i think if i am to explain myself, i would say my name is christian 32 year old. i am half dreamland, my mother site and a half danish, the weekend for my father's foot. and so i've always been very fascinated with yours. that's the element that i feel at home. my clean and the past. something that i need visited when i was with 1st time. i remember there was baptism, but i only have fragments of memory. oh,

you know in greenland, if you walked just a 100 meters, you're far from civilization. i never had that idea of moving to the local and had an idea of traveling all of knowing. after that month i told my friends, but i'm sorry, i'm going to stay here. and i had the toughest to into my, my my car broke down. and i had no money, the only job i could get it was at the factory here. i was living technical matters from it. started at $530.00 in the middle of the polar winter, the horrible weather for 3 months. and i used to being with fin bicycling and have you had to borrow equipment from people that this was like chris and now you have to stuff to borrow. you're tired.

just take it like that's the thing about some people say they have a great experience happening for me. the 1st formative years and placement. this is what i'm going to do. this is who i am and this is what i want to do. expand excited shine? basil adlene visa has gotten it's changed a bit. the dawkins and associates it's different now as far as young. where do i

start calling on my friend yona solice yesterday with him social media. he works at the plastic smithy. hein di recycle plastic. it's a group that recycles plastic, cleared his head out, a sort of shred to plastic waste, hang them musket cuffed, it can then be melted down again and recast. and i know form things, garbage maneuvering, and that's where i came up with these rings in against form. heighten the rings are supposed to support the whole structure of plastic, and we only use a very small amount of plastic and we use recycle to plastic. so it's basically plastic, neutral, gothic, not her, which is nice and road format. you as you can find it right here, nature. sure nice. now we have all this garbage residence hall, them. you have it all a told in between the rings. you see these disks. so banashali is cork, but they're super sustainable with super buoyancy. it is, however,

a bit hard to say how much weight it can carry and for how long. because even cork absorbs water at some point buffer. maybe it float steeper now or something. or he is the boy with the bulk of land. it was completely under water, a total of 80 kilometers within 3 months from time warner. and on top of that, our tracker, it's definitely waterproof and lasts about a year. i'd say 300 days, something like that far with us with we eventually learned that the river can carry both our boy and trash a long way. especially when running high pools, new boy allowed us to continually adjust the prototype and fix problems depending on the river levels. our prototypes took around 3 months to cover 80 kilometers with several brakes along the way. it leaked of improvisation. it's definitely

because of the low water levels, the way it's positioned you can tail, it'll probably be carried away again when the levels rise. since he rescued us, that looks pretty good. we decided to build several boys and then set them out along the elbow. every 100 kilometers so that their parts could overlap their good beloved, let's get started. it's now 1230 and we have to finish today. addition if i'll start. okay, whoa. whoa. wow. help works right.

lazar in the spin. these will be the covers with information. like a contact details and the names of the boys sponsors line. unfortunately, the weather's a bit, but put into a bit of short on time. come up on 515 minutes later for the worker with ah

couple of it. it's a little after 7, and we really need to get this done today when a healthy ah to

mm hm. no, i can't, i can't. here's the captain. on and the guest of honor by that is the fin. hello. oh, hello. hello, carlos, farmer. i found his already tested the boat and i've got the right ready. yep. so the captain, you have to tell stuff on what to do. it's clerk and sir calla. calla. we're ready. this is the drop, the boy was it and was yes.

floating love, or if we did well, bosun one of those, then we go downstream and put one out every 80 to 100 kilometers so that their roots overlap it against the embassy. and then we wait on them shamela was possessed. ah, was ex 9. 0 with

i have a quick upside of what the project started with the growing scientific interest in the environmental problem. if marine letter at some point, you just can't ignore it any more it's been well the last one i shouldn't have been new. i'm rosanna sion, i shall just, i'm a marine biologist. no, i don't have my doctorate quite yet, but i think when the film is finished, i well that did another one back on the homeless in may or those before. i mean, of course we found out a lot for us is always the case in science. i know for every question,

answered 3 new questions and we're always the main findings. all that garbage does indeed travel along the north, these main current work. but what we also found out is it gonna be just very susceptible to wind ins, could them to 100 on that? i'm up where we released him, the boys a total of 3 times a year that those 63400 timber boys were released in the north sea in the tributaries law and offshore. of if you look measure to response rate. the literally for 40 percent, actually 43 percent finished and the direction of the current. we know that waste is basically driven into the gym and bank and then more or less along the coast deflates because shine and denmark to the north. and then along the norwegian coastline out in the elk take, what do you think of but this line is not they were heavily populated by and that means are the only small islands that i think there will be a lot of talk. okay, so my new one or this nice feel boys really make it not just to denmark,

but it may be that they land some way here along this. we just can't even see that they then go out again with a tight and then drift out along the coast of no way towards the end. take it to act as well. we still haven't our right of that. yeah. another our service does with that we're not crazy. 90 people from to one let you know, we're taking china in total, a whole another ambulance the one to talk to you about like to know way what we want to do, whether we want to re book it, move it forward. i mean, listen to, i mean,

do we have dates we're just love to go on the streets and the very necessary things. she's like getting groceries. just need to be a, you know, you go up the door. thank you just to still be a good, a 2 years of work and one last minute film, shoot with chris before he moved south to study. and suddenly the world comes to a standstill. down thing is you'd have to climb to 14 days if you wanted to do the i'm going to do gas electric. i've been trying and looking into the government it's, it's difficult to get over it right now. no country is kind of locked in and the only thing moving between orders, plastic in these solid risk. hm. so what does it, does it not as you man. his name is wyatt. so he's

a must've got he rescued it from the water kids. now it's going to help bob. all right. nice to meet you. good. i think it's funny. right. wired. miss wyatt. oh, hold up. dinner on board. okay, bye truth. sylvie, we found this boy from throwing it back. mm. oh. oh oh, hello. hi, stefan. hi stefan. i just didn't read the name. okay. okay. i'm hannah, and this is my sister marie. and we're from amber campbell, and we found

a duke came together with an assistant lena oakland, cornered it's a non profit company again be ha, yeah, we started doing that to clean up some friends and family last year on the phone for stopping. and it grew really quickly and a lot of people joined till and now we do it regularly with us later, mrs. yeah. as the one that was right at the beginning of the locked down, we got to cool that we should throw the boy back in the water and cook oven. and that was super exciting, fun. as a bush bund. yeah, yes. and then we went there and then we watched the current little bit 1st. we got some advice so that i knew exactly where to throw it in audit bestbuy list. i'm alpha when i go for it. yeah. very good. good of if you meet is most banker. all right,

thanks. bye. hey, i found this in the atlantic ocean 5 or 6 years ago, but you can't even tell what it was. it's actually the process of micro plastic formation. all these little crumbs that we see here, they used to be pieces of these larger yellow pieces. this was actually just sitting around in my house. i've only moved it a few times and it's still decomposing. and that's basically what happens in the environment that these larger objects continue to decompose until they become micro plastic. my name is dr. laws good to me. i'm a marine biologist at the alpha vega institute in brown. my husband is basically i study the reactions of marine animals and ecosystem multiple changing environment. and these changes can be natural, but they can also be caused by humans,

such as climate change or the pollution a object. every plastic object is more or less unique and there is this variety of animals that are sensitive and react in many different ways. the plastic, the effects are basically as diverse as the animal world itself. but is it what we often observe in many animals is that micro plastics in the tissues will trigger oxidative stress. this can damage the genetic material and can also damage the facts that are necessary. for example, to build up cell membranes. proteins can also be attacked. i'm creating a sort of inflammation in here on hika research vessel from the alpha vega institute for polar and marine research. i will now launch the boys

ever got it? yeah, yeah. it's been anchored. the thing is, i'm actually pretty optimistic that they'll start moving again when conditions change in height and then the tides, the wind. i don't know that on. and then they'll start floating them from even though it was the same there. but i can also, there was a lot of garbage around there with it. i think it'll stay there forever. severe. it's heading norton norton. no carry garbage was

move. oh boy, that's all through stigma and before breakfast full go can't otherwise crazy. when you, when they get you find a lot of fresh everywhere. bottles everywhere. crackling, even if they are almost like a finder, they're like garbage. yeah. they were shooting with was on the river. well,

what they actually do in the river. really interesting. usually they have a little journey around like maybe 10 hours, but it's interesting on some point. they stop there for like couple of days and then i don't know where they start moving again. down here we threw it in and then actually when we through the trip to it, it just went along the curve and then it gets stuck there for a couple of days. maybe even even 3 or 4. then it went further to this point. it got stuck again, and then i think yesterday or the day before it moved again and it went all the way up here with a

a but you don't bring in this house from what i understood. it was washed up in a pile of mud. come and all over, it's really a dumb pm. a lot of the wins this from the is on 2009 crazy so you can tell it might stay there for like even 10 years or whatever. but as soon as there's a lot of water, it just gets taken away because what, what, 10 years of a plastic lifetime, that's just like waiting one month in human lifetime or whatever. right? now i think doesn't grady

my number's melanie back ma'am, is my name is melanie bergman? silver? i'm a deep sea research on marine litter and climate change in the arctic thinking miranda in the office that i've had with nancy to would besides. the alfred wagner institute as had the house gotten deep sea observatory since 1999, specifically to track the effect of climate change. this includes towed in camera systems which would drive one and a half meters above the sea bed, along the same route every year. he was young gazebo tracking and data, and we've noticed that we're seeing more and more rubbish on the sea bed. and we took a detailed look at various stations and thousands of images and found that the amount of trash increases sevenfold between 2004. and 20175000 feet in spite of the pip since he still got fancied out of what we see is just the tip of the iceberg ones i'm off, i'm to find nickel plastic. soc funding fits. we have also started to quantify

micro plastics and found enormous amounts. 5, st. paul at one station there with that teen 1000 particles per kilogram of sediment. other than that exceeded anything we had previously imagined talk a spare time. amazing me. to do all i got some interesting news. one has landed in no way. my friend. yes. yes. if i remember right, you told me that you are studying close to us or in us the right very from in. i mean, if, if not in the article yet,

but it's pretty close to where you live, man, this is amazing. this is amazing. your guys know it's really cold. remiss. see, one of reasons, right. this is a testament, the golden, ari i yeah. so 10, right? at the spot, love kill with malaysia. yes. when we got there, that's the place where all the best to get to release for sure that it was,

it was about your life shortly stories. so there's a lot of different material, disagree with oh great, it. look at the guy from chris to lisa. post it. it is wrecked, man. it is just destroyed on the upper side. so it also cuz i'm right now writing. i'm to come to the new building and their ability to base your species. you know

that whenever the ocean you can get a layer microbes on it, just expect that the problem like how in traveling some of the plastic along the coast night and no, no even if some boys were still moving, it was clear that german garbage was drifting over way to norway, it just took much longer than expected. if this is the animation that they got, so i look forward to this one, almost made it over there for the moving race here. says that those 2. now here it stops for you. but in reality, probably what happened is that tiny bits broke off and they could have horseback. they can slowly step by step by step. every time we come smaller, smaller when that's how we get michael plastic in the arctic sound over

$10000.00 particles. the micro has now the type of show that abeline micro plastic was everywhere on all plan on plan needs and in common and we scientists are relatively united in our opinion that we will no longer be able to get it out. but most of the plastic that is now in the oceans will remain that much of the large amount of waste will break down into micro plastics. but we won't really get it out. especially not if it is the size of micro plastics from damage but important by michael plastic. this one. yeah. exception song. as all i understood you for. yes. yeah. i am worried i a study last year showed for example, that micro plastics even pass from the mother to not yet born fetuses via the placenta. new to body plot center. and if in the show not born wouldn't offend, it's disturbing that children are exposed to it before they are even before the

mahogany surveys. and i wonder if this somehow impacts their development and fickle changes to some way by entitled to em gaffa and not the note. and i form murray because good god, thank you. thanks everyone. regardless of gender, political affiliation, and age, it up will take, every body produces garbage in. and just because you took out the garbage bag or the garbage tray on, it is not gone. what happens afterwards? well, what are the consequences for nature for society? if they don't think about adding benefit, we'll say him kindly that go on my home to come on down. if you think about it, then it becomes clear very quickly that it is not only an environmental problem, but a social problem. we live in an economic system that is based on continuous growth, a constant increase in production. at some point, we have so much that we can no longer control it and it's got the house. and we're starting to see those effects. something that seemed as infinite as the ocean where

we thought everything we threw in, we'll never see again, is bringing all that material back to us now. yeah, i think you've got so much, i guess. and that i think is the most important thing. the plastic is on top of all the other pressures that we put on the ocean is on top of the ocean, warming the ocean city cation, the ocean, over fishing, the noise, pollution, all the other things that we're doing to the ecosystems in the ocean. it could very well be that the plastic is, is to drop the tips your bucket avenue theory, respiratory. okay. so this a new j p made. it's

a very serious one. you know, we have 5 plastic jasper around the world as fast as accumulating and won't really realize before in 510 years. it is called a guarantee jaya nathan t no milk water's p, a p testing or most of the coal street will end up eventually. ah is the end of the pandemic in site? we show what it could look like. return to normal. and we visit those who are finding it difficult. with success

in our weekly coven, 19 special. in 30 minutes on d. w. to the point of strong opinion, clear positions, international perspectives for teens was bringing death and destruction to ukraine, but it is also changing power structures across europe. these displays leadership while the west appears hesitant on to that point, we ask, is eastern europe leading the continents with on t w. hey guys, that avalanche are my welcome to my podcast to love matter by and by celebrities influences and experts to talk about all plain loved. thanks from day to day. nothing less because all these things and more and then you will see the plot can

make sure to tune and wherever you get your past and join the conversation, because you know it love matters. ah, ah ah ah ah, ah, this is the w news coming to you live from berlin, a fresh barrage of russian ass strikes. it's ukraine. mm. at least 3 explosions are reported to have struck the capital key to other targets include the hockey eve and.