Why we need to talk about this hidden poison gas

Sulfur is everywhere - from foods to the human body, clouds and volcanoes. The colorful element is a main driver of acid rain and also a major pollutant present in coal. So why is no one talking about it?
#PlanetA #Elemental#Sulfur
We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world - and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.
Credits:
Reporter: Amanda Coulson-Drasner
Video Editor: Henning Goll, Nils Reinecke
Supervising Editor: Kiyo Dörrer, Elke Opielka, Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann
Factcheck: Jeannette Cwienk, Alexander Paquet
Thumbnail: Em Chabridon
Interviewees:
Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist and researcher, Berkeley Earth
Edmond Sanganyado, researcher, Northumbria University
Read More:
Marine fuel regulations and global warming:
www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-...
Sulfur dioxide hot spots:
Taken from report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) energyandcleanair.org/ and Greenpeace India: www.greenpeace.org/static/pla...
Aerosols and clouds:
earthobservatory.nasa.gov/fea...
Progress on acid rain:
link.springer.com/article/10....
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:46 Sulfur is everywhere
02:28 Dark side
04:47 Acid rain
05:24 Health effects
06:18 Coal and sulfur
07:35 Regulation
09:06 Conclusion

[@DWPlanetA]

How much of a problem is sulfur pollution where you are? PS: Liked this video? 👍 Or didn't? 👎Take 10 minutes and tell us what we get right - and what we can improve: surveys.dw.com/c/dwplaneta

[@CausticLemons7]

I live in Florida and sometimes decomposing plant matter like seaweed can make beaches or marshy areas smell because of hydrogen sulphide. But I think we're more concerned with phosphorus mining in central Florida.

[@efedegirmenci]

The audio-visual context and the informative content are well-prepared; The show is quite informative. Many thanks...!!!

[@wensdyy6466]

The closest monitoring station shows had the worst result in winter and it was 4,6 µg.m-3 (still way bellow the limit) and since 2011 it is 60% lower I remember how we were taught that in Krušné hory nearly all forest died off because of acid rain caused by the coal powerplant located there (they changed dying sprouce for non-native douglas fir but evan that did not thrive as much but it was able to grow). After desulfurization of powerplants these forests recovered (but still mostly contain non-native douglas fir) and you cannot spot anything wrong with these forests. Desulfurization led to 93% of SO2 and 60% less of SOX and I´m really glad that Czechia recognized this problem and started to implement solutions almost a decade before we joined EU (the main dancerous thing that we have to deal with considering air is the above limits of benzene and pyren that endanger around 20% of our population)

[@joseenoel8093]

Awesome! I'm a chick forest technician from Montreal, my daughter's a biologist and my son's a nurse, we are STEM! Keep up the great work, failure's not an option!

[@robertskolimowski7049]

Great video, thanks🤝👏

[@DWPlanetA]

Thanks for watching! ☀

[@RobinEHHoard]

Good information and presentation

[@DWPlanetA]

Glad you liked it! 🙌

[@norenguhs8619]

Nice

[@mavigogun]

Sorry, couldn't get past the head line- which is a huge fiction: sulfur emission reduction is a major focus of both ICE development AND other fossil fuel power generation revision efforts. Shipping is a prime example, where sulfur cap targets were set years ago, along with standards, and there have been significant investments and progress toward those goals.

[@cheweperro]

Yes, and now we have acid rain. The thing is that was also cooling us some. So now North Atlantic ocean surface temp is totally out of scale It's pretty neat. We're getting screwed every and all at once

[@ryanreedgibson]

Yes, you are right!!

[@AmericanBlackKid]

Yes… they detail all of that in the video

[@DWPlanetA]

Hopefully you will get past it! In the video we point out how sulfur has been heavily regulated, which is why it has not been so widely talked about in the public discourse lately. BUT that it needs further regulation still. 🦾

[@mavigogun]

@@DWPlanetA That's an easy fix then- just edit the title: it seems to me a disservice to the effort, undermining credibility. Thanks for the reply.

[@szaszm_]

0:10 *tastes sulfur* "extremely toxic" funny timing 😅

[@MandosaWright]

I thought sulfur was also highly reactive, and could explode on contact with water

[@tossancuyota7848]

Yes lets Go! DW! Remind em the same way u did in 2k's!

[@Eoin-B]

My good friend in Secondary School had well water high in sulfur. Even worse he would bring a bottle of it to school each day and I sat next to him for 2 years. On top of all that, at his house, cooking and even drinking tea would spread the smell of fart across the house. Add unhomogenised goat's milk to the tea and you almost get sick from both the texture and smell. It was sure :D Still, I found drinking our town water worse though (besides it smelling better) Also, I'm in no way arguing with the video's points, but high sulfur, and smelly well water are definitely not harmful (and I mean this stuff was really bad!). The spring on their land has been tapped (or siphoned) for 3 generations, plus both of their kids are in STEM, one a Doctor in Astrophysics another a mechatronic engineer. So don't get scared about it in a B&B in the countryside or anything.

[@Hiro_Trevelyan]

So... regulations work (in general). Despite the outcry of the industrialists and right-wingers, we managed to make do and the global economy didn't collapse. Just regulate more and the industry will follow, as long as we keep an eye on them.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

Yes, and we accelerated global warming by removing the sulfur. Probably 0.9C from sulfur aresol removal rebound.

[@justinweatherford8129]

Off topic questions: What would happen if we were to atomize water where we have excessive amounts of it? Would it provide a means to transport water to areas that need it more? Would it help absorb carbon emissions? Would it refract more light than it reflects? How much energy would it require to make a difference? What would be the least energy intensive methods for doing this? How much water would have to be atomized to bring our oceans back to normal levels? If we were to atomize enough water to bring our oceans back to normal levels, then what would our atmosphere look like? How much energy would be required to atomize enough water to bring our oceans back to normal levels? How would generating enough energy to preform these things affect us and our planet?

[@techcafe0]

what are you blabbering on about?? water is simply hydrogen + oxygen, both abundant atmospheric gases. why would you want to waste huge amounts of energy just to 'atomize' water into its constituent gases for transport?? i'm sorry, but your idea is simply bonkers and nonsensical.

[@belmont8792]

Do a story on sea lice. It's a big problem in the UK.

[@manubhatt3]

The effort this video took not to mention in India in negative context, is surprising and absurd.

[@vusiradu5681]

Which area can Acid rains affect Inland or Coastal?

[@DWPlanetA]

Both! But the severity of its effects depends on the local environment, the proximity of pollution sources and the buffering capacity of nearby water bodies etc.

[@emilmadmax]

A Word of praise for all the Claus Units around the world!

[@philipb2134]

Good gracious, where would we be without K2SO4?

[@Brightlight-bd9jc]

This video is made to make sulphur a complete villain 😅

[@michealwestfall8544]

Guess we have to pay them to stop.

[@markarca6360]

You should have taken into account the Yokkaichi asthma, which was caused by the same thing.

[@hrushikeshavachat900]

The west has to fund the reseach and development of technologies which help to reduce the emission of any type of poisonous or greenhouse gas.

[@krishnakisku4266]

Love from india

[@sarcasmo57]

We still burn so much.

[@schlaumayer3754]

7:40 fun fact: according to this map, the southern tip of Texas was part of Mexico in 2013 😂

[@roberthiggins6401]

Why is sulphur used in agriculture then?

[@m0rthaus]

Sulfur is a nutrient required for many plants to grow. You could have searched this answer in about 5 seconds.

[@ransofaraway]

We want to see burning elements and fire shows please 😂

[@roberthiggins6401]

Should we go back to the stone age then?

[@HShango]

I hate sulfur (the human variant aka fart)

[@viceagain7335]

Its part of nature, most plants (except flowers) need sulfur to grow, as i stated in a previous comment stuff like this wont fix the problem ;)

[@CausticLemons7]

Arsenic is also part of nature and will still kill you. Nothing in this video suggests we should eliminate all sulfur, and they specifically discuss the uses of sulfur in modern civilization.

[@AntzLoks1314]

El-Choctaw-lord-de-AztlanMexicoCalifas ANTZ Holywater i Cali Mexifornia Mexicali Chicano Mexicano Mexican Mexica Teotihuacan Tenochtihucan Amarru Azteca empiro 12

[@jakoblarok]

9:30 - Warum haben Sie China nicht gezeigt‽

[@jakoblarok]

Du bist schwach und hast Angst. Das wird den Diktatoren mehr Macht geben!

[@roberthiggins6401]

Why are fillers not used to capture this terrible stuff?

[@ukaszdabrowa9957]

They are in a power plants and chemical plants as well, and they are very efficient. It’s industrial standard for years. Nowadays the problem is with households and individual coal fueled furnaces. Large scale facilities are obligated to monitor and reduce emissions. By catching sulfur emissions, industry is creating plenty of value byproducts, such as gypsum and sulfuric acid. Of course, we’re talking about so called “first world countries”.

[@dantetre]

Typical German video, hides all the Hungarian invention that were made. Just like the Deutsches Museum in Munich.