Rivers and lakes and under our feet groundwater theyre usually hidden from view is vitally important. Hello and welcome to tomorrow today the science show on t w. The vast amounts of water on our planet and sitting still but in motion in a perpetual cycle heat from the sun makes water evaporates and rise into the air as it condenses into forms clouds and eventually precipitation ensues in the form of rain snow oh hail. Some of that water evaporates again directly some is taken up by plants and flows into rivers lakes and seas seeps into the earth and replenishes the ground water some of that in turn makes its way to the surface. This is the upper rhine valley in southwest germany. There are places here where something valuable and increasingly rare public is up to the surface. Clear pure groundwater. Pike feel right at home in it as do many other species of fish. Some are facing extinction the european is a critically endangered species. Own fish need clean water and groundwater is a crucial source of that. The places in this region where the water rising from the depths is so pure this is not the rhine river itself but naturally occurring ponds fed by springs. Here the water temperature is 11 degrees celsius all year. The springs and ponds are important and need to be protected. It looks like they can be found anywhere unexpected holes in the ground even in the middle of flattering. The groundwater that feeds the springs some of which ends up in the rhine river itself is the result of a complex process. Rain that falls in the fuss because mountains to the west and the black forest up plans to the east feed streams. Or seeps directly into the ground through soil and wherever the rock is porous permeable or cracked and travelling downwards through sand gravel or other formations its filtered and purified while also picking up minerals along the way some of them of great. Value. When the water reaches impermeable rock it flows along the top of that layer and into the valley. If it feeds into the river it mingles with what was once groundwater in the alps to the south. Theres a huge aquifer beneath the upper run valley. In the valley groundwater bubbles up to the surface in spots with a rock and ground are permeable. Thats how such ponds are formed. In the clean groundwater many life forms flourish. Pyke like the temperature and the oxygen and nutrients levels in the water not too much and not too little. Heres some male piker chasing after a female after a bit of a song and dance one couple mate. These pristine ponds are under threat. Intensive farming means insecticides pesticides chemical fertilizers and slurry can all pollute groundwater. And thus the springs that feed the ponds. For the. Nitrate from nitrogen fertilizer causes al joe blooms which use up all the oxygen in bodies of water. Various chemicals are bad for aquatic animals and plants. They also threaten the supply of water we humans drink. The level of nitrate in groundwater exceeds the permissible level in more than a quarter of germany. Groundwater carries nitrate and other chemicals down into the valley. Contaminated groundwater endangers bio topes its meant to see. Stain. Where the ground water is clean it feeds bio topes rich in biodiversity. Lips. Reed beds. Woodlands and also manmade lakes. Such as old gravel pits as they fill up with water life returned. To young great crested grebe is looking for food. It finds a fish hiding in vain among the plants. Dragonflies and damselflies thrive here too. They all need clean water to reproduce like these common blue gems of fives. A female heads down into the water. Or male concert accompanies or. She climbs down the stock of a plant to make a hole in it and deposit her eggs. At this depth the age should remain safely moist even if the water level drops. Then she lets go and rises to the surface. A male helps her out of the water he wants to mate with her. None of this would be happening word not for clean water from underground sources its a pressure. Resources we need to do our utmost to protect. We also need to protect that water when its still in the ground. Ground course it is in a way like the ocean depths mysterious little in the dark its cold too it may not be cosy but all kinds of weird and wonderful creatures live down there. Theyve adapted to the harsh conditions. They merit close attention they are fascinating and we actually need them as well. Since time immemorial tiny creatures have lurked in the depths of our groundwater most are translucent and blind and theyre perfectly adapted to their desolate habitat where theres no light almost no food and little oxygen can see you can harness the ground water ecologist hes fascinated by these subterranean animal species such unknown as stick a foreigner. Around waters the deep sea beneath our feet its never been properly researched but its teeming with exciting form of the play a key role in purifying the water. And therefore the quality of the water we drink for millions of years that habitat has barely changed but now groundwater temperatures are rising and that poses a potentially deadly risk to stick to for now as hand in hand has demonstrated in a comprehensive scientific study. And 50 sports and simulated is when nature is still intact the ground water is well protected and its temperature remains stable between 8 and 12 degrees celsius. So temperatures dropped 10. 00 degrees. There were searches find snails and worms and felt of shrimp like the fungus. These creatures that live in the groundwater have evolved over millions of years to suit their environment they perfected the art of surviving with very little food thanks made to low metabolic and reproductive rates and eggs with an extremely high yolk content to ensure the young survive. There are some 250 types of stick a foreigner in germany including them if August Schellenberg it hasnt changed in 30000000 years and nor has its habitat creatures that can survive being groundwater have adapted to a severely limited food supply the waterlow selous aquatic us for example can go for months without food copes by barely moving and expanding Little Energy if august belair eons and muscles feed on bacteria plant and animal residue in the process purifying groundwater of organic matter and preventing tiny pores in rock surfaces from cooking up and allowing the ground water to keep flowing. Stick a foreigner can only continue to perform these valuable tasks if their habitat remains unchanged but now ground water temperatures are rising especially in urban environments do partly to climb. Changing partly to the fact that subways underground car parks and pipe systems heat the ground and therefore the groundwater. In the long run the tiny creatures of the deep wont be able to survive higher temperatures temperatures such as here in cause. The defense to point one degrees thats high. About 3 degrees too high but in many cities no longer unusual. For. The groundwater habitat is clearly at risk but unfortunately Green Technology poses an additional threat to stick a foreigner. Then. In recent years as Climate Change progresses groundwater has increasingly been used for Geothermal Energy either to heat or cool for air conditioning for example and that of course heats up the ground water this is happening primarily on the outskirts of cities where Industrial Zones are being built a new developments are going out its suddenly getting warmer in exactly the places where the former is still relatively intact. 2 but perhaps not for much longer then the sticker for no would no longer perform their vital role in purifying the water we drink it isnt always at him just you know that microorganisms bacteria will change but there will be greater diversity more species he thinks the rate of growth will increase and therefore there will be greater challenges to the supply of clean water it will be harder to keep the microbes in check in our sources of water versus in cliffs of all. More to purification in Treatment Plants will become harder and more expensive theres little awareness of this problem germany has never had to limits on ground water temperatures there are no regulations on protecting subterranean fauna. A lot of attention is paid nowadays to protecting bodies of surface water but not to the infallible water beneath our feet. Not according to e. U. Law and also the german Water Resources law the ground water is a body of water just like a broker lake on its a college must be protected as yet this is not happening its seen as a resource and nothing else. Ground moves it is all most important source of Drinking Water and thats partly thanks to these tiny creatures this up to rainy and fauna that time forgot. They deserve off banks and op protection. Less than one percent of all the water on earth is in the ground so we should be careful what we do with it. In many areas the ground water level is dropping because we pump up so much of it about 70 percent goes to farming and a lot of the rest to industry. So how much water does it actually take to grow out the crops and make our kids. What is virtual water. Lets take genes as an example it takes around 8000 liters of water to make one path thats 53. 00 bathtubs full how come growing the cotton uses most of the water its a very thirsty plant if the rains fail cotton fields have to be irrigated. And if the cotton is to be spun into jeans it also needs coloring rinsing and bleaching that pollutes a lot of water. Virtual water is the unseen water that goes into the manufacturing of our product. Nearly 19000 liters per one kilo of coffee 184 liters for a kilo of tomatoes and about 15000 liters for one kilo of beef. In a country with adequate natural Water Resources High Consumption isnt a problem unless of course a lot of it gets polluted but in many regions water is scarce or supplies have been depleted by producing certain goods the water level in the aral sea has dropped 18 meters because of irrigation in cotton fields its turned parts of was back you start into a salty toxic waste land. Tomatoes a cultivated in the parched reaches of Southern Spain using water piped into enormous greenhouses. And in brazil where theres a shortage of Drinking Water the countrys huge coffee plantations are never short of a dry. Up coffee is a major export for brazil. Europe import these water guzzling goods and by extension all the virtual water needed to produce them seen from this perspective someone living in germany uses 3900 liters of water a day slightly over the global average but cooking showering and laundry make up only a small part of that most water used here is virtual water hidden in the products around us. Water is a finite resource fresh water is especially bad and it exists in the petrol cycles like the rest of Nature Carbon and nitrogen for example the atoms and molecules that make up everything on earth at their origins billions of years ago. The cycle of emergence growth and decay is eternal and nothing goes to waste at least in nature but when we humans get involved its another matter entirely. Millions of tons of building waste and global are produced around the world and. Much of it and landfill. But what if it were possible to transform trash into new Building Materials the wall insulation in this house i made from plastic bottles tetra pak. And potato. It was just one of its many features. This is a Test Facility the temporary residence of students who are spending several months here to find out what shapes. It feels good to know that you are living in a place that is going to be the future because now cities are turning to to mind and they are living in this environment with these materials and you know that you dont miss anything and it also provides you with a fixed time you need to use. One mans trash is another mans Building Materials expert Enrique Marquez he calls it in mining practically everything in this apartment is recycled over recyclable oyster not they all the source of our Material Resources on earth are limited. And. Theres only so much copper building sand and so on thats a fact so were slowly reaching a point where theres not that much left we need a solution and the only one that works is a circular economy and yet you guys love it off and they so for example the rooms are fitted with carpets that a manufacturer can later take back and refurbish into new carpets they cost small with them can only fit they pick them you dont buy the car big you just rent it because the manufacturer will want you back at some point so seem to be all you have it seems most of the materials here can be fed back into the system so that the same product or Something Different can be created from the opening to the piece now is toast. But to maintain this kind of cycle the buildings need to be designed in the right way. That all of you have to be able to disassemble the building into its individual components that means everything can be just connected its all they were screwed or slotted in as usual and although i like to exaggerate a bit and say it has to be possible for 2 people to take the entire building up argue with just an electric screwdriver for the nonce no way that. This bronze door handle once belonged to a punk that was demolished these kinds of high quality components often going to waste. A swiss Online Platform now sells Building Elements from demolish buildings for very low prices. It was founded by architects alleviate the pebble. In the shrine so. We have around 3. 00 to 4000. 00 demolition permits a year in switzerland so more than 10 buildings are torn down every workday lives. And its really surprising what gets demolished. Even see buildings that were completely renovated just 10 years ago marked for demolition. And you ask yourself is that normal is that really the way we should be proceeding to muslim nations. The Online Platform has a diverse clientele some of the items listed on the site and definite proof in switzerland. It was a stroke of luck for architects bustin told around. This official so i just searched the platform for window. And i found these ones these are photos of the original building the windows are wooden frames. I bought 25 of them for hardly anything because they would only have been thrown away otherwise. A. Whole book lets go here because you know what about that i use them for this partition wall and i. Have a rather. Still very few components like these that recycle storage is a problem also not everyone in the Construction Industry is convinced. Although there are already countless extraordinary example is about cycling around the world. Why is recycling not yet commonplace and construction. These Building Materials are available and affordable so why dont more people make use of them. As its about taking the plunge into place we notice that people are just unsure if because there are a lot of unknown factors like legal and planning aspects in the way its put on the blog and as is often the case if somethings new then theres uncertainty. Uncertainty holds you back and we see that as the biggest reason. Other countries have made more progress like the nothing and these bricks are made of waste products theyre manufactured in this old brick yard south of on stood by him just as the conventional brakes used to be. The main product of the start up. To you already do is a beautiful colors or doesnt necessarily look like waste any more. The bricks are mainly made from shredded building rubble and industrial waste. Another funny one. That also tells like a nice story is. So what im holding here on my hands used to be toilet vaults saying its tiles like a kitchen. From tiles. The market for them has grown by life the past year although these particular products are expensive sales are improving. So this is the shoulder pepper theres just theres a middle one theres no gosh theres vis a lot of me. But its always a combination of just this idea of sustainability combined with the side i think people really like to buy beautiful things and its its a win win if its sustainable and beautiful and india nobody wants a building even if its sustainable the colorful bricks cannot be seen in many new and renovated buildings across europe. The netherlands is a pioneer in such you know economies the country wants to recycle all of its waste by 25th state and its aiming for 50 percent by 2039 patients planned. I think only one solution to speed up the transition to to a circle our economy is just. Make it policy and policy in terms of tax incentives and thats a nice 1st step but actually starts handing out penalties as people dont use reuse materials for instance seed to meet the time for change is now it makes sense and people know it is and it wont cost a great deal itll just take time and our Construction Industry has grown to what it is over the last 250 years its the worlds biggest economic sector i mean its not something we can change overnight to meet Sensitive Data but it does need to change so you know growth unlike our resources are running out. If outlet is read why i mean but only thing you have to do you have a science question youd like us to answer. Send it. You know if we feature it on the show youll get a little surprise as a thank you. Come on just ask. If youll find us on the web at d. F. W. Dot com slash science or check us out on twitter. Thats all for now thank you for joining us. For morning grossing stories about science and technology visit out web sites. Well be back next week with a fresh edition of tomorrow to go. Until then by. Golly. Elements of the forces of emotion suddenly dangerous tsunami as. More and more people live in coastal areas where in an emergency every 2nd counts. The searchers are getting to the bottom of this natural phenomenon but what protection is there against. Just some tests. In 15 minutes on d w. It was the 1st International Tribunal in history. The number of trials. 75 years ago a high ranking officers of the nazi regime before you judge it by the allied forces. Were the 1st war criminals to be held accountable for their crimes. Come back around them im. Going. 10 years frazier. Our 2 part series the 3rd reich talk starts november 12th on d w. Beethoven is for me. Is for you. Beethoven as for hell. Beethoven is for her. Beethoven is for the. Beethoven is for us. Is for. Beethoven 2020 the 250th anniversary year on the air. This president ial election is a crucial wide not just for the United States but for the world whos leading the race in americas polarized politics will be right here for you and well tell you everything you need to know as america decides who bring you the numbers choose the background as it happens and until the last group is counted join us for a special live closer from berlin the u. S. Election november 4th on details of. This is the news live from bozeman a manhunt in from outside after another attack on a church play saying orthodox priest has been shot and seriously wounded in the southern city. Ellipse to tack it is on the wrong with the sawn off shotgun also coming up. On a sponsor voting in the ivory coast the current president of the west african nation is hoping to secure a good turn in the opposition say thats unconstitutional the latest from our correspondent on the ground
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