Tag: DW Documentary

Fleeing Climate Change – The Real Environmental Disaster

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How many millions of people will be forced to leave their homes by 2050? This documentary looks at the so-called hotspots of climate change in the Sahel zone, Indonesia and the Russian Tundra.

Lake Chad in the Sahel zone has already shrunk by 90 percent since the 1960s due to the increasing heat. About 40 million people will be forced to migrate to places where there is enough rainfall. Migration has always existed as a strategy to adapt to a changing environment. But the number of those forced to migrate solely because of climate change has increased dramatically since the 1990s. It is a double injustice: after becoming rich at the expense of the rest of the world, the industrialized countries are now polluting the atmosphere with their emissions and bringing a second misfortune to the inhabitants of the poorer regions. One of them is Mohammed Ibrahim: as Lake Chad got hotter and drier, he decided to go where the temperatures were less extreme and there was still a little water, trekking with his wife, children and 70 camels from Niger to Chad and then further south. The journey lasted several years and many members of his herd died of thirst. Now he and his family are living in a refugee camp: they only have seven camels left. Mohammed is one of many who have left their homelands in the Sahel – not because of conflict and crises, but because of the high temperatures. He’s a real climate refugee.

The Insect Apocalypse

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfTNeXOMyvY&feature=youtu.be
The world’s insect population has declined by three quarters in the last 30 years and many species have become extinct. And it’s all man’s fault. This documentary looks at the dramatic consequences of this hitherto unrecognized catastrophe.

The results of long-term monitoring published in 2017 have confirmed that as much as 75 percent of the world’s insect population has disappeared in the last 30 years. The extent of species extinction is so vast that many researchers fear that it will knock the entire natural cycle of life out of balance. Not only the decline of the bee population but mass insect mortality as a whole will have devastating consequences for all the Earth’s inhabitants. Top scientists from around the globe are warning that the developments are much more widespread and serious than anyone had realized. Many animals feed on insects. Insects also help to convert dead tissue into nutrient-rich soil. In addition, they even regulate each other. Species that humans see as pests are often the preferred prey of useful predators. But massive human intervention has thrown the functioning balance in the insect world out of whack. Chemical poisons, the progressive sealing of soils and the widespread use of fertilizers are affecting the world’s most species-rich animal class. This documentary looks at current studies and explains what is going wrong and where urgent action is needed. There’s still some hope: although many species have been irrevocably lost, mass extinction in the insect kingdom could still be stopped – but only if humans finally begin to act against it. And we’re running out of time.

Energy Hunger, Energy Guzzlers and Energy Providers, Part 2

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHmp7_r1PG8&feature=youtu.be
Mobility is one of the world’s biggest drivers of energy consumption.
The switch to renewable energies will affect people’s everyday lives. How will we get from A to B when fossil fuel reserves run out in the future? How will we fly around the globe without oil and gas?

Mobility is one of the world’s biggest drivers of energy consumption. The transportation of people and goods by road, rail and air accounts for around 34 percent of total energy consumption. The electrification of mobility has already begun and, as the example of Norway shows, it could be one solution – but not for trucks and industrial vehicles. Is fuel cell technology a viable alternative here? Japan firmly believes it is.

Could electrification also revolutionize air transport? Siemens and Airbus want to make aviation history here and are working on a regional aircraft with a hybrid electric drive – but it won’t work for long-haul flights. But scientists from ETH Zurich and the German Aerospace Center are working on a spectacular solution to the long-haul problem: synthetic kerosene from sunlight.

An alternative to heavy oil is also being sought for shipping. Neither electric propulsion nor fuel cells will work for gigantic cruise liners and above all for the container ships that account for a large part of world trade. Methanol, which can be produced sustainably, could be the answer and a large prototype vessel is currently undergoing trials.

In addition to mobility, digitalization is one of the great power guzzlers of the 21st Century. Streaming services, cloud computing and the Internet of Things are all increasing our energy requirements. Experts anticipate consumption will increase by around 40% over the next 12 years. Microsoft’s server farms alone will consume as much electricity as a medium-sized European country. Where’s that power going to come from? We have to cut back our consumption.

This will also apply to our future lives. The world’s first self-sufficient apartment building is located in Switzerland and shows how you can become energy independent. The future will be in networked houses that exchange electricity among themselves.