The DBU highlights the importance of the oceans for climate, biodiversity and food supply

Erfurt (ots) - German Environmental Prize awarded to marine
biologist Antje Boetius and a team of wastewater experts from Leipzig

The German Environmental Foundation (DBU) has awarded the German
Environmental Prize for the 26th time. Today in Erfurt, German
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the Head of the Board of
Trustees of the DBU and Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal
Ministry for the Environment, Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter, presented
marine biologist Antje Boetius (51, Bremerhaven) and an
interdisciplinary team of wastewater experts from Leipzig that
includes Roland A. Müller (55), Manfred van Afferden (57), Mi-Yong
Lee (47) and Wolf-Michael Hirschfeld (70) with the 2018 German
Environmental Prize - the most prestigious independent environmental
prize in Europe with a remuneration of EUR 500,000. With this year's
prize, the DBU is highlighting the importance of our oceans when it
comes to protecting our climate, biodiversity and food supply, while
also warning of the dangers of climate change, pollution and
overfishing. This year's prize also draws attention to the United
Nations' call to action to provide the world's population with safe
drinking water and adequate sanitation by 2030, which would serve to
significantly improve living conditions around the globe.

Oceans act as the most important heat stores on the planet

The DBU emphasized that oceans provide an important habitat for
both flora and fauna, regulate the Earth's climate and act as the
most important heat stores on the planet. They have mitigated many of
the effects of industrialisation and have absorbed a great deal of
carbon dioxide and heat. In large part, they determine the Earth's
weather patterns as well because they often serve as the source of
winds, storms and precipitation. And right now, our oceans are in
critical condition. The melting of the polar ice caps, global
warming, industrialisation, overfishing, and unimaginable quantities
of waste all pose growing threats to this ecosystem. The number of
so-called "dead zones" in the world's oceans - hypoxic or low-oxygen
areas that are unable to support marine life - have grown by more
than one-third since 1995. There are currently 400 of these dead
zones around the world covering an area of more than 245,000 km2,
which is more than two-thirds the size of Germany.

A ground-breaking step for better living conditions for local
populations

This is also due, in part, to the fact that 80 to 90 per cent of
wastewater in developing countries is discharged untreated directly
into rivers, lakes and the oceans. The DBU has called the
implementation a functioning, manageable, low-maintenance, cost- and
energy-efficient sanitation sector in these countries a
ground-breaking step in terms of improving the lives of the people
currently living these countries, as well as the lives of their
children and their children's children. At the same time, there is
still so much we do not know about the oceans' ecosystems, and it is
vital that we close these gaps in our knowledge in order to
understand the connection between microbial diversity in the deep sea
and global shifts such as climate change. According to the DBU, we
must first understand these processes in order to understand the
global climate cycle and act on these findings.

Demonstrating the impact of deep-sea bacteria on the global
climate

Antje Boetius, deep-sea and polar researcher and Director of the
Alfred Wegener Institute's Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine
Research, was lauded as an outstanding scientist with an
extraordinary talent for understanding systemic processes in the
world's oceans from an interdisciplinary perspective and for
conveying the relationships between them. Through her research, she
has demonstrated the impact of deep-sea bacteria on the global
climate: these bacteria ensure that only part of the harmful methane
gas trapped in the ocean can escape into the atmosphere, thus
preventing the planet from heating even faster. The marine biologist,
ecosystem researcher and science communicator has repeatedly proven
that human activity can be detected in the farthest reaches of the
Earth.

Protecting a yet-unexplored world against destructive deep-sea
mining practices

In Boetius' view, along with climate change, the global fishing
industry has already seriously altered the world's oceans. Her aim is
to ensure that the yet-unexplored world of the deep sea does not fall
victim to destructive deep-sea mining practices required to mine raw
materials such as manganese, iron, cobalt and rare metals. Our oceans
must be understood as part of our planet and of our society as a
whole, and thus as a crucial aspect of the sustainability aims of the
United Nations. The biological diversity in our oceans and polar
regions are also an important resource for our future and must
therefore be protected.

Pioneering work and capacity development in Jordan

As advocates for water resource protection, the team around the
group of researchers at the Environment and Biotechnology Centre of
the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Müller, van
Afferden, Lee) and Wolf-Michael Hirschfeld, the initiator of the
Training and Demonstration Centre for Decentralized Sewage Treatment,
was honoured for their pioneering work in the area of capacity
development in Jordan. Jordan is one of the top three countries in
the world most affected by water scarcity and, in recent years, its
population has grown by nearly 70 per cent from 5.6 million to 9.5
million (2016) due to the influx of refugees from Syria. The team
took an interdisciplinary scientific approach, worked in an advisory
capacity in terms of economics, acted as intermediaries in terms of
politics, helped to inform the general public, and also took an
active role in the practical implementation of the project.

Water scarcity as a major cause of migration

Decentralised, flexible wastewater management systems, which can
also be used to supplement existing systems, allow wastewater to be
treated at the point of origin while also protecting the groundwater
from wastewater contamination and preserving drinking water as a
resource. In order to realise this project, the team had to overcome
not only the boundaries between the natural, engineering and social
sciences, but above all the boundaries between research and practice.
This project is crucial because around two billion people around the
world are forced to use drinking water that is contaminated with
faeces. Alongside poverty, a lack of economic prospects and a lack of
political participation, difficult living conditions including water
scarcity are one of the main causes of migration.

Background information:

With the German Environmental Prize, which is being awarded this
year for the 26th time, the German Environmental Foundation (DBU)
recognizes the achievements of persons who have contributed to the
protection and conservation of the environment in an exemplary way,
or who will contribute to environmental relief in Germany in the
future. The prize - which is independent and, with a prize amount of
EUR 500,000, the richest prize of its kind in Europe - can be awarded
for projects and individual measures, as well as to honour an
individual's lifetime achievements. Candidates for the German
Environmental Prize are nominated to the DBU by groups such as
employer's associations and labour unions, churches, environmental
organisations and nature conservancies, scientific associations and
research councils, as well as media, trade and commercial
associations. Individuals may not nominate themselves. A jury of
independent, prominent experts from the fields of industry, science
and technology as well as from various societal organisations is
selected by the DBU Board of Trustees and makes a recommendation on
who they feel should be awarded the prize for that year. The DBU
Board of Trustees then makes the final decision. For more information
on the 2018 prize winners, please see:
https://www.dbu.de/123artikel37810_2442.html

Contact:
Franz-Georg Elpers
- Press Officer -
Kerstin Heemann
Julie Milch
Gesa Wannick

DBU Contact
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49090 Osnabrück
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 541|9633-521
Fax: +49 (0) 541|9633-198
presse@dbu.de
www.dbu.de

Original-Content von: Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), übermittelt durch news aktuell