Later holes and everything today. First getting, are you ready to meet the german and join me, rachel stuart, and d. W. I am company guy here in iowa, Sexual Assault survivor stem to step ah and say the truth. Her women in asia are bad. Apathy is excusable. Nothing can stop me. That hes taking joe into this week, who ah for himself, im looking forward to the water to finally Getting Started over from the black forest to the black sea for 8 weeks chemistry professor andreas thought was when the entire length of the danube 2700 kilometers running through 10 countries, the danube is the 2nd longest river in europe. Thoughts mission to combat Plastic Waste . Each day for tons of micro plastic from the danube washes into the black sea thought plans to had their braving the cold storms and high waves. An adventure in the name of science in the media have gathered by the daniel been own for the start of his journey, a competitive swimmer all his life. Andreas thought hopes the publicity will draw attention to the Plastic Waste problem or better he should read. Why werent swimming, they wouldnt be here. This helps us spread the message. So hopefully things will change or dont to help, which was because Plastic Waste is everywhere. But his swim is a science project to, to chemists from his team will collect water samples all along the route, starting where the greek arc and brag streams converged to form the danube. Here they filter 1000 leaders of water looking for micro plastics. Back in own here the danube is a chilly 12 degrees celsius but is always accompanied by a kayak notch, is due to the cold but to ensure his safety to his wife is also on hand at the start. A team of 8 organizes everything from energy bars to speeches, while andreas thought swim. Hey mrs. Mitch to know i dont have to do this, but it gives me more influence to change things or find i want to do something meaningful with my time on this planet. I want to use it sensibly. Not just as a consumer confounded now, this is a positive contribution i can make and to protect bodies of water. People buy from. Mm hm. And its not completely selfless, i admit, because i like to swim and open water to resume. But as you can and preferably in clean water hornet, through some loops, thins album im but where does micro pass to come from . How does it form . Like here in goons, book the team holds educational workshops to thought rushes in to give talks, reciting the figures off by heart. So since 1950 when mass production of plastic began, we produced 8300000000 tons of plastics in front of that. Just 9 percent is recycled worldwide and white inside micro plastics can breach the blood brain barrier. They accumulate in the brain and weaken our immune system. Yet we ingest plastic daily, even from salt mills, recovery shows that its not just the salt that comes out, but tiny fragments from the plastic concession. We put this in our food. Then each week we ingest about a credit cards worth of micro plastic. Last 5 grams coming on. I did it cutter friends from infancy. Both tire. Where is also a source of micro plastics in the environment. The tire particles are washed from the streets, into the sewers. And from there to the rivers. Here the brittle plastic in them is ground down further by rocks and the current the team organizes clean obsessions along the danube. Like here in english that their schedule is packed and andreas thought keeps giving interviews and forgetting how cold he is. Hot shower now that really helps them mark them a fish yet especially when youre really frozen up to this point. Theyve traveled by car and spent the nights in hotels, but now theyll continue by boat. Its captain edgar. Wilhelm jumped at the chance to help both cumbia, sri, theres still so much plastic floating around and see. And so what andreas is doing, you swimming these 50 or 60 kilometers a day, which i think its borderline and genius. Green skin the i pod while andreas is doing his duty in swimming by the belgian book, abbey in bavaria. The boat is being converted to provide living accommodation for 10 people. The water is also getting warmer now. Its up to 13. 00 degrees celsius. How long were you in the Water Fishing . He had min interns on 930. As of its not so 6 and a half hours. I think for more than 45 kilometers, 100 kilometer do the team is settling in the m s. Marber will be their new floating home they cast off for the 1st time. Captain ed gavin helen has trained his novice crew over night and chemistry student 10 collects water samples every 100 kilometers. Its part of his masters thesis. Higgin if will the samples will go to vienna where theyll be checked for tire additives. I up the tire abrasion is one of the biggest sources of micro plastics and bodies of water. Theyll also be checks for residue from drugs, fertilizer and plaster sizes. All contaminants which are difficult to filter out and load the team will be on the boat for 7 weeks. There are still 2400 kilometers to go. But the stomach flu is going around forcing crew members to spend spells lying in bed. Andreas thought has been spared that, but he has an even bigger problem. Kind of video, honda. Again, whether its him, can you do something with the shoulder of the to neoprene wet suits, have rubbed, his skin ra should infection said in that would spell the end of his expedition. But andreas thought refuses to even think about that in just concentrates on swimming. Every day a membrane is applied to his foot that resembles a piece of fish skin the luck of the you, it collects micro pollutants in the water. So its called a sampler, somebody i glossy it is there are pesticides on it, its, its plaster sized version of our artificial sweeteners or corrosive agents, antibiotics, radio contrast agents. One of the list is long whether they use membranes filters or depth probes. The goal is always the same, to find the toxic chemicals that wind up in the human body and even accumulate in the brain, but whose effects remain largely unknown. But some times andreas fall to forget about all that initial 1st re, trailers. For me, theres a ritual quality to swimming for, which is why i do it rather than cycling or running for for spring. And once you jump in the waters among your underway in a 3 dimensional space and slightly beforehand, youre grounded in 2 dimensions. In the water, you can move in all directions and it carries you off. Harvard when i have problems like stress at work or whatever. As soon as i enter the water, everythings easy on life after 2 weeks, vienna is in sight. Next, all the water samples collected so far will be offloaded and analyzed at the university. Thoughts wife, nicholas, son, moderates are back and will accompany him all the way to bratislava. The whole family is into sports. Also. After leaving the end of the river flows faster and grows wilder. This is one of the most dangerous stretches of the danube with cross currents and maelstrom. So suddenly theres a rumbling sound. A rock with law smart. For a moment were stuck. Yeah. I got these rolling lumps of rug on the river bed act like a mill and grind down plastic in the water. After 4 weeks theyve reached the iron gates gorge, just 1000 kilometers to go here. The danube runs through the car path eons. It looks idyllic. But requested the 2 chemists on board, ive set up their lab to monitor the water quality. Theyve seen some shocking results. Back up in belgrade, the water was really brown cloudy, and even a warmer i wont swim in a place where the species and 1700000 people are fed into the water untreated. Sometimes the danube is choppy to despite the current thought, makes little headway. Instead of his usual 8 kilometers per hour, he manages just 3. Still the water is warm. 22 degrees celsius. Luckily theres a big lock inside. Thought isnt allowed to swim through there anyway. Only when the captain has found a place to drop anchor, can he dig in to every one on board tends to turn in early. Theyre all tired out with 2 weeks later, just 500 kilometers to go in georgia. Romania. Theyre holding a workshop with School Children here. Conservation is circum painting for a nation wide recycling system. 2 breaks into small little pieces and we see this on the edge of it. Theres something missing. Hm. After a few more workshops, the team has packing up. Thought has entered the home stretch. Hes just 15 kilometers from the finish. Hes not home free yet. Its dangerous here, but the organizer prepared fats wife nicholas for that. Mario, mario warned me before the lots of speedboats fly by and dont expect a swimmer to be here. I found a family limit of ice and andrea spot is almost wistful, more miss butler to morrow its over. But sometimes it was nice, at least at the end, and sometimes it was more like torture. That lowered, im flying 2700 kilometers. Lie behind him. Analyzing the water samples will still take months. But what counts now is that fought has made it his son motor its accompanies him for the final stretch of canada. As i know, hes glad im here. And so i think, and that makes me even happier. Now. The old port city of selina and kilometer 0. Theyve reached the finish. But to take a photo to remember this special moment they have to keep going on foot. Thought may have done all the swimming, but this really was a team effort in ish. Yeah, thats good to go. Either ours less. Ah, now theres only one thing left for andreas thought to do. Take a dead than the black sea. After that. Its back to lectures and lab work. With a woman with god. Margaret was 64 when she 1st wrote a motorbike and she hasnt stops in 18000 kilometers 18 countries. The adventure of a lifetime. No limits. Margarets incredible journey, as special read oh d, w. The 77 percent. International media is accused of focusing fully on negative headlights. Coming out of the african. Quite do you agree International News out there . Do they have a lot of the time of kids to take it . What would you like . Very important. Its also telling the police story. Its not just about the ugly story. There is a lot missing and theres a lot of work as a 77 percent in 60 minutes on thank oh, what people have to say matters to us or mm. Thats why we listen to their stories reporter every weekend on d. W. Theme with. C