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What is microplastic and how is it created? Does it have an effect on flora and fauna and on humans? How can we take countermeasures or even use characteristics of microplastic in a useful and sustainable way?

Rivers tell us a lot about the people, that live along them. How they farm, what medicines they take, how they eat and how industry and municipal households treat their wastewater. This is also shown by comparing the three rivers in different cultures.

The lecture “Rivers as mirror images of our society – Rhine, Tennessee River and Danube” in english.

Instead of swimming in clean water, we are increasingly swimming in plastic. This has consequences for biodiversity and our protein food sources from the world’s oceans.

When is water good and when is it bad? Which parameters are important for this decision? One value alone has little significance. It is a whole bundle of values that answer this question.

Plastic, on the one hand, is a miracle material with countless properties, and on top of that it is cheap and durable. But only in use. In the environment, plastic is becoming a problem, that up until now is unsolvable.

About 10 million tonnes of plastic waste enter our oceans via rivers every year. Where does this waste come from, what are the consequences and how can we reduce this amount?

An adventure story. The protagonist himself takes you into the Danube. A scientific expedition with many intercultural experiences and results. Environmental education conveyed in a different way.

Swimming and water conservation have one thing in common and that is water. The extremely successful concept and why it works better than research in the “ivory tower”. Practical knowledge transfer.

To participate in social life in a healthy and vital way for as long as possible is what everyone wishes for and strives for. Through a targeted and continuous exercise programme, injuries and illnesses can be significantly reduced prophylactically, and water helps to achieve this.

There are many motivational theories in sports psychology. None prepares you for swimming 8-10 hours a day for 8 weeks in a river. Extrinsic motivation does not work, it can only be intrinsic to get into a “flow”.

The medium we deal with most intensively is not the iPhone or the laptop, not the couch or the television. No, it is our body. If it works, everything else works too: “Mens sana in corpore sanu”.

In the spring of 2022, chemistry professor Andreas Fath enters the icy waters of the Danube. His plan: to reach the Danube delta by swimming to draw attention to the pollution of the river by microplastics. 2,700km. Director Shane McMillan accompanies the team around project leader Mario Kümmel on the 8-week journey full of ups and downs from the Black Forest to the Black Sea. The visually stunning film takes you on a thought-provoking journey along one of the most important waterways of our continent. You will get to know unique cultures and personalities on the banks and the most international river on earth through different eyes.