>> welcome to "global 3000!" a web of lies. who is profiting from fake news about renewable energies? ♪ >> hope below the sand: why fortune seekers are heading to the mauritanian desert. and -- the doctors of the incas. how bolivia's traditional healers are seeking their place in the modern world. ♪ just under 200 years ago, french physicist and

mathematician joseph fourier discovered the greenhouse effect. when sunlight shines into a closed glass box, the box heats up because the energy cannot escape. no-one knew then that this also applied to our planet. nor did anyone know that that was because of the huge amounts of co2 emitted into the atmosphere by burning oil, gas and coal. things are different today of course. for decades, we've known why our climate is changing. but, doubts have been sown about it for just as long as well as about what needs to be done to stop it. >> memes. streams. shopping. communication. all the infoation in the world, ready, when you need it. the internet is a magical place. but there are also some weird corners. i'm talking about the dark underbelly. the ugly face of conspiracy theories and misinformation that shows itself in obscure forums and chat groups. especially under stories about

renewables. we read the thousands of comments posted under our videos on wind and solar -- and collected those that smelled of misinformation. and slowlypatterns erged. the same talking points kept coming up. and as futile as it may be, we decided to debunk them. people kept pointing out that making wind turbines and solar panels creates emissions because it needs energy. >> all these materials have to be mined, refined and/or manufactured in order to make solar panels. >> requires massive amounts of conventional energy. and yes, that actually applies to every form of energy generation. but some spelled out what others just insinuated. that renewables are worse for the climate than fossil fuels. >> the fumes coming up to make these massive windmills is more than anything we're talking about with natural gas. >> no, no, no. no, no! for wind and solar, i think for wind you are now at 20 grams per kilowatt hour that you emit.

and for solar, i think on average it's like 40 grams of co2 per kilowatt hour, and that's a fraction like 1/10 or 1/20 of what you get with fossil fuels. >> of course, wind and solar have a carbon footprint. but it's tremendously lower than that of any fossil fuel. oh, and this next rumor, by the way, is also not true. >> a wind farm spends the first seven, eight years of its life earning back the energy that went into building the wind turbine. >> it's such nonsense. it's such utter nonsense. i mean, for windmills, it takes like half a year nowadays for the windmill to produce as much energy as it took for the whole thing to be produced and put in place. so with this one out of the way, on to the next one. a classic on the renewables-bashing hitlist. >> the essential unreliability of solar and wind. >> solar and wind are unreliable fuels.

>> we can't rely on renewables alone. the message here is that solar and wind will plunge us into chaos. >> this isn't exactly a newsflash. but the sun doesn't shine all the time. and the wind doesn't blow all the time. >> and those peddling this myth got very excited in early 2021. >> records over and parts of texas. >> a>> deadly winter storm myth gblanketed most of that state1. with snow and ice. >> winter storms swept across the u.s. state of texas leading to severe power outages that killed hundreds of people. and the entire renewables propaganda machine immediately found a culprit. >> the windmills froze, so the power grid field. >> even the state's governor, who's received millions of dollars in campaign funding from the oil and gas industry, blamed renewables. >> our wind and our solar got shut down and that thrust texas into a situation where it was lacking power. it just shows that fossil fuel is necessary for the state of texas.

>> this picture started spreading online. and along with it, the narrative that frozen wind turbines caused the blackout. but they didn't. the photo was actually taken in sweden, and first published in 2015. and frozen wind turbines were really not the biggest problem in texas. >> nuclear went down. coal went down, natural gas went down. and a portion of the wind turbines went down, simultaneously. >> a report by the university of texas, which came out in the catastrophe's aftermath, showed what the biggest problem was. outages in fossil fuel power plants, especily those running on natural gas. yes, some wind turbines also stopped working. but that could have been prevented. >> wind turbines in many states in the u.s. and in northern europe that don't freeze, because they actually have de-icing equipment on them. so the problem was not intrinsically with the wind turbines, but with the fact that there was no de-icing equipment. >> what happened in texas was not the fault of renewables, but that is exactly what countless people were told, and believed.

>> the online world is kind of like a cooking pot. there are things that have been in that cooking pot for quite a long while. there are new ingredients being added in. every time it gets added in, it gets stirred up. >> this is neil johnson, who researches online misinformation. >> at any one time in any place in this network, can appear any kind of combination of pre-existing ideas which will never go away, you can't eradicate them. >> our brain plays its part in this as well. it favors information we get from people we trust or admire. and information that supports our worldview. change can be intimidating. and it's also not always easy to separate fact from fake. much of the misinformation out there does contain a grain of truth -- that then gets blown out of proportion. yes, solar panels do have a carbon footprint. but it's tiny compared to that of fossil fuels. yes, some wind turbines did freeze in texas. but that wasn't the main reason

for the blackout by a long shot. context matters. also for this die hard myth about wind turbines. >> they are terrible for birds. >> kills all the birds. >> again, it is true that wind turbines kill some birds, but cars kill significantly more. so do skyscrapers. and even cats. debunking is a hard and thankless job. the list of falsehoods about renewables circulating online is pretty much endless. we could keep telling you what's wrong with them, one by one, forever. and i guess that's what the people behind them want us to do. they want to keep us busy and distracted from asking way, way more interesting questions. like, who's peddling these myths in the first place? ♪ >> it is kind of hard to pinpoint. i think it's a lot of think tanks, right-leaning think tanks. they get most of their funding>> through donations and grants. and wouldn't it just be interesting to know from whom?

usually they don't mention get their mining -- where they get their money from. sometimes we do get the odd glimpse into their finances. in the past, many of them received money from exxon mobil, according to the fossil fuel giant's donation reports. but usually, most of this plays out behind closed doors. the think tanks operate as non-profit charities -- which allows them to keep secret who their sugar daddies are. quite frankly, it's been frustrating and disheartening to see all these outlandish claims about wind and solar still out there. i guess it's important to take them for what they are -- a symptom. a symptom of a trillion dollar industry clinging onto its business model. doubts about the alternatives and fear of change are helping it keep its grip. ♪ >> gold is the stuff of dreams and desires.

in the late 19th century, more than 100,000 people flocked to alaska's klondike river to try and find it. this is probably the most famous gold rush in history, but there have been many more. poverty was the big driving force behind the desire to find gold in often inhospitable regions. it still is. in mauritania in north africa, people come from many countries in the hope of making their fortune. ♪ >> dreams are said to come true in the scorching heat of the sahara in northern mauritania. but anyone looking to fulfill their deams here has to dig deep. ♪ >> they also need to be brave, or extremely desperate. the mauritanian government has opened up the area for gold prospecting. those seeking their fortune descend deep into the sand in search of buried treasure.

but it's a risky undertaking. >> there are many dangers here. you could be working when suddenly everything collapses, and the sand falls on you. we'll look for you and remove the sand until we find you. but there's no oxygen when you're trapped in the pit. ♪ >> there are a lot of cracks in the rock, so it's really dangerous from a safety point of view. the rocks in this part of the sahara are not very stable. the gold diggers try to locate the vein, they follow it into the depths. sometimes it's slanted, sometimes vertical, depending on how jagged it the rock is.

that's the surface. assuming there are veins here, the miners will try to find the part of the vein closest to the surface. they'd start digging here, for example. but those who start their hole here, for example, will have to dig a lot further to reach the vein. so it all depends on the depth of the strand. ♪ >> more than 40,000 people from mauritania and neighbouring countries have flocked to the desert. many want to escape poverty and unemployment. they hope to find something in the sand that could give them a shot at a better life. >> i studied telecommunications at university for two years, but it didn't work out. it's very difficult to find a

job here, to live here. so you choose a path and walk it until you find something. >> i tried to go abroad to further my studies. i applied for visas for spain, germany and canada, but the applications were all rejected. getting a visa is harder than finding gold. >> the prospect of a big find has attracted many people from the region. 18-year-old mohamed has already made his way through a number of countries since leaving sudan in 2019. >> i worked in niger, then chad, then i went to libya, tunis, tamanrasset in algeria, and finally here to mauritania, always through the desert.

♪ >> for mohamed, and other men who come here to work, the journey to mauritania was not easy. >> there's a mafia along the way. in mali, for example, there are jihadists who come out of the bush and attack you. they have guns and they're ruthless. they take everything you have, and if you try to fight back, you'll be killed. we encountered many problems on the road. >> security is just one of many problems for the men in the desert.

after the rock has been washed out, it's treated with mercury in order to extract the gold. the process is highly toxic for people and the environment . the sea and banc d'arguin national park, a unesco world heritage site, is less than 30 kilometers away. >> in 2021, a mercury level of 0.5 milligrams per kilo was measured here. a hundred times more mercury than about ten years ago. it goes from animal to animal. it's converted. at the end of the chain, in humans, it becomes methylmercury, which is extremely toxic and dangerous. these are very, very high environmental costs. has this phenomenon been adequately studied? are we giving these issues enough consideration? are we asking the right questions?

>> the gold miners are not concerned with these questions. the environment is not a priority compared to their own survival -- and the dream of having their own little piece of the pie. >> we found the stones here, not very far down. ♪ >> i love watching documentaries. i used to watch netflix, do you know the netflix app? i see people who want to do something, and they just do it! i watched a documentary about the first person from his country to climb mount everest. i hope one day to do the same. ♪ >> the world health

organization estimates that around 80% of the world's population regularly uses traditional medicines. these include active ingredients from nature in tablets, teas and ointments as well as acupuncture, yoga, ayurveda and spiritual therapies. traditional healers still play a key role in many societies often because modern medicine is either difficult to access or simply unaffordable. >> for centuries, legendary medicine men -- the kallawaya -- lived close to lake titicaca. they were the doctors of the incan kings, often called "witches of the andes."

what remains of this culture today? we met aurelio ortiz, who calls himself one of the last kallawaya. >> we kallawaya know the medicinal properties of roots, flowers, leaves and fruits. i received my extensive knowledge about plants from my grandparents. look at this moss. you can cure many people who have been put in psychiatric wards with it. in traditional western medicine, you just call these people crazy.

>> aurelio also has remedies for alzheimer's and cancer -- but he won't tell us exactly which ones. a patient from the capital city of la paz has arrived at his practice. aurelio welcomes the young man between stuffed cats, tinctures, herbs and roots. yasmani arze requested a ritual with coca leaves. ♪ >> i want to know from aurelio what i need to do to live a healthier life. and i need advice for my life, my emotional world and the future of my work. +++ based on the shape of the coca leaves, aurelio interprets whether someone will come into money, stay healthy, or be blessed with good fortune. but he also analyzes his patients' past.

>> yasmani has endured emotional traumas. his wife cheated on him and he was in a car accident. both of these things have really scarred and shaken him. that is why he's so reserved now. >> a ritual to heal emotional scars is prescribed. aurelio assures us that he's already been able to heal cancer patients with his natural medicine. we couldn't verify this. aurelio also shares his knowledge with non-indigenous townspeople. guests from chile are waiting for aurelio in his kitchen. they want to stay here for several weeks to study traditional kallawaya healing methods. >> in the big cities, our relationships with each other are often toxic. this affects our energies and

our soul. so there are many good reasons to learn about ancient medicine from people who still live in harmony with nature. ♪ >> at this hospital in the kallawaya valley, the chief physician daniel fernandez has respect for healers like aurelio. not least because many of his patients ask for them. >> whoever wants to, can get pills from me first and then be treated by a kallawaya healer, who then prescribes an additional natural herbal medicine. >> pharmacies are almost nonexistent in the provincial capital charazani, because the strong tradition of alternative medicine has been preserved here. dozens of kallawaya like

aurelio live in the valley, but they also feel the modern world moving ever closer. >> the foreign, western culture and its thinking are coming closer and closer to us. but i think our healing medicine will remain strong and important , even if our children suddenly only play with smartphones. ♪ >> centuries-old traditions live on alongside a new, digital generation -- a generation that plays computer games on their smartphones after school, on the slopes of the andes where they can still get cell phone service. a little further on, it's time for yasmani arze, a city dweller, to cleanse his soul.

>> i feel the power and peace of the soil of the earth, and contact with nature. >> while the offering of wax flakes with icing melts, aurelio tries to bring yasmani arze's soul in balance with prayer. like so many others before him. >> with each passing year, people are moving further and further away from mother nature. that is why it is clear that there will be many diseases, many droughts, earthquakes and seaquakes. how can we save ourselves? these rituals help us pay atonement to mother nature. ♪ >> it's a stark contrast to the accelerated pace of the modern world that lives on regardless, with the kallawaya healers of bolivia. ♪

>> this week, we're off to fiji to meet our "global teen." ♪ >> what is your name? >> my name is faith raduva, i'm 15 years old, and i'm from viwa, tailevu in fiji. my father is a pastor at our church, and my mum she's the manager of communications and public relations in nadi airport.

>> yes, i have two siblings, my older sister annmary who is 19 years old, and my younger sister eunice, she is 4 years old. so i'm the middle child. ♪ >> my sister is a climate activist, and when we are free, sometimes we go and check out the mangroves we had planted, and we see the growth and development the mangrove has. and sometimes we find mangrove seedlings on the shore. so we pick them up and go to the places where there's small patches and we start planting and filling up the area with more mangroves. ♪

>> i have a younger sister, and i want her future to be much better than what we have now. because we are facing a lot of environmental problems, climate change, and sea level rise. and what i want to see when my sister grows up, i want her to be happy in the environment that she is. ♪ >> most of the time, i play with my small sister. i help my parents and my elder sister with the house chores, and i play with my cousins. sometimes i play rugby or volleyball.

♪ >> and that's all from us at "global 3000" this week! thanks for joining us! drop us a line to global3000@dw.com. and we're on facebook too! see you next time! ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy, visit ncicap.org]

♪ nicole: this is dw news lie from berlin. a russian missile strike on a hospital in ukraine kills at least two people and injures many more. ukraine's president describes the attack is a crime against humanity. in turkey, tough talk against migrants is on the rise ahead of sunday's presidential election runoff. we will meet some of the refugees who say the harsh words are making them fear for their safety.