Amount easily accessible to us humans is relatively tiny. Its in 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 g. W. The vast amounts of water on our planet and setting still but in motion in a perpetual cycle heat from the sun makes water evaporates and rise into the air as it condenses forms clouds and eventually precipitation ensues in the form of rain snow or hail. Some of that water evaporates again directly some is taken up by plants and flows into rivers lakes and seas seeds into the earth and replenishes the ground water some of that in turn makes its way to the surface. Is the upper rind valley in southwest germany. There are places here where something valuable and increasingly rare topples up to the surface. Clear pure groundwater. Feel right at home. It has too 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. These 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 flat terrain. The ground water that feeds the springs some of which ends up in the rhine river itself is the result of a complex process. Of rain that falls in the fosters 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 traveling downward 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 where the rock and ground are permeable. Thats how such ponds are formed. In the clean ground water many life forms flourish. Pyke like the temperature and the oxygen and nutrients levels in the water not too much and not too little. Here 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. Nitrate from nitrogen fertilizer causes algae 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 sustain. Where the ground water is clean it feeds bio topes rich in biodiversity. Lakes. Reed beds. Woodlands and also manmade lakes. Such as old gravel pits as they fill up with water life returns. A young great crested grebe is the king 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 off eyes. A female heads down into the water. d quarter male concert accompanies or. She climbs down the stock of a plant to make a hole and the deposit her eggs. At this depth the 8 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 Precious Resource we need to do our utmost to protect. Nuclear also need to protect that voice when its still in the ground. Ground course it is in a way like the ocean depth mysterious little duck its cultish it may not be cozy but all kinds of weird and wonderful creature. Has lived 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 habitats where theres no light almost no food and little oxygen can see who can harness the groundwater ecologist hes fascinated by the subterranean animal species switching known as stick a foreigner. Water is 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 at potentially deadly risk to stick to for now as has been han has demonstrated in a comprehensive scientific study. And 50 sports and simulators when they stayed intact the ground water is well protected and its temperature remained stable between 8 and 12 degrees celsius. So temperatures dropped 10. 00 degrees. There were searches find snails and worms unfelt 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 mainly to low metabolic and reproductive rates and eggs with an extremely high yo content to ensure the young survive. There are some 250 types of stick a foreigner in germany including and if August Schellenberg it hasnt changed in 13000000 years. And nor has its habitat creatures that can survive being groundwater have adapted to a severely limited food supply the water laos s. L. s aquatic us for example can go for months without food it copes by barely moving and expending Little Energy if august or belair ians and muscles feed on bacteria plant and animal residue in the process purifying groundwater of organic matter and germs preventing tiny pores in rock surfaces from clogging 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 Climate Change and 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 cars. Different point one degrees thats high. About 3 degrees too high but in many cities no longer unusual. The groundwater habitat is clearly at risk but unfortunately Green Technology poses an additional threat to stick a foreigner. And then its not in recent years as Climate Change progresses ground water has increasingly been used for Geothermal Energy and either to heat or cool for air conditioning for example and that of course heats up the groundwater but 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. But perhaps not for much longer then the sticker for now would no longer perform their vital role in purifying the water we drink it isnt i wasnt interested we know that microorganisms bacteria will change that there will be greater diversity more species effects 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 for us us interests of our. More to purification in Treatment Plants will become harder and more expensive theres little awareness of this problem germany has never said 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. Enough according to e. U. Law and also the german Water Resources law the groundwater 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. Grounds will take is almost important source of Drinking Water and thats partly thanks to these tiny creatures subterranean for now that time forgot. They deserve our thanks and opera texan. 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 grubs 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 1st the plant if the rains failed 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 for 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 are 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 beans 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. Is a finite resource fresh water is especially bad and that exists in the petrol cycle 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 the nature but when we humans get involved its another matter entirely. Millions of tons of building waste and globo are produced around the world each year. Much of it and up in landfill. But what if it were possible to transform trash into new areas. And this house i made from plastic bottles tetra pak. And potato peel. 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 up as 100. 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 fixed i mean to use. One mans trash is another mans Building Materials expert and reclaim our case he calls it in mining practically everything in this apartment is recycled over cyclable not the other source of temple our Material Resources on earth are limited. And. To be i mean theres only so much copper building sand and so on thats a fact 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 the shit out of it off hand they so for example the rooms are fitted with carpets that a manufacturer can later take back and refurbish into new carpets they pick those small was then called if that they picked you dont buy the car big you just rent it because the manufacturer will want you back at some point its all 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 over to the piano 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 over screwed or slotted in. With all the 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 or fold and almost no way that. This bronze door handle once belonged to a bank that was demolished these kinds of high quality components often go 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. You can 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. The Online Platform has a diverse clientele some of the items listed on the site and brewery in switzerland. It was a stroke of luck for architects bastian told around. The successful fall i just searched the platform for a window to get good food and i found these ones these are photos of the original building the windows have wooden frames. I bought 25 of them for hardly anything because they would only have been thrown away otherwise. It. Will look lets go here because you know what that i use them for this partition wall and you can even 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 examples of up 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. Its about taking the plunge in a place we notice that people are just unsure of because there are a lot of unknown factors like legal and planning aspects in the way hes put on the blog and as is often the case if something is new then there is uncertainty. Uncertainty holds you back and we see that as the biggest reason we dont wish. Other countries have made more progress like the nothing than these bricks are made of waste products theyre manufactured in this old brick yard south of amsterdam by just as the conventional brick seems to be. The main product of the startup. She already beautiful colors it doesnt necessarily look like waste anymore. 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 in my hands used to be toilet vaults sinks tiles like a kitchen or a box room tiles. The market for them has grown by life for the past year although these particular products are expensive in proving. So vicious that the shoulder pepper theres just theres the middle one is you know gosh this is the salami. But its always a combination of this idea of just great ability 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 and nobody wants a building even if its sustainable the colorful bricks cannot be seen in many new and renovated buildings across. The netherlands is a pioneer in such you know economy its the country wants to recycle water gets waste by 25th state and its aiming for 50 percent by 20. 9 patients planned. I think its only one solution to speed up the transition to a to a circle our economy just 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 150 years its the worlds biggest economic sector they meet the vehicle so its not something we can change overnight to eat Sensitive Data but it does need to change so you know. All resources are running out. If outlet is right why im. Robert latham even if it is. Do you have a science question youd like us to answer. Send it is if we feature it on the show you get a little surprise as a thank you. Come on just ask. Youll find us on the web at v. 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. Will be back next week with a fresh edition of tomorrow today. Until then up i. Mean. Every 2 seconds a person is forced to flee their home. The consequences are disastrous our documentary series displaced tomatoes and greed the exodus of gonna stop us. Factories are being deserted. Farmers are facing bankruptcy the current 6 free trade. In 75 minutes on t w. It was the 1st International Tribunal in history. The nurnberg trials to. 75 years ago high ranking officers of the nazi regime good morning judging by the allied forces. Were the 1st war criminals to be held accountable for their crimes feel good. About how i got my. Garry trudeau 10 years frasier. Our 2 part series the 3rd reich the dog starts nov 12th on d. W. O. The more. I can. Be personal for. Him those smaller smaller. Movies oh goodness knows. No use no love. 4 of which. Was a. Closely. Small. This is t w news coming to you live from berlin europes steps up its fight to slow the soaring cases of the corona germany returns to a partial lockdown as a number of other countries impose their own restrictions for the latest from our correspondents around europe also coming up. Support in a key swing
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