Climate Connections

Today marks World Wetlands Day.  The swamp forests, reedbeds and flooded grasslands of the Lower Mekong basin form one of the most biologically important regions on the planet. But these ecosystems are vanishing at an alarming pace, along with riverbank collapse, which has led to coastal communities losing their homes. Researchers believe that this is because the Vietnam Mekong Delta is currently...

Soil is often an overlooked aspect of nature. Now, if you dig deeper, you’d realise that healthy soils serve not just as the backbone of safe and sustainable agriculture, but also helps with carbon sequestration.  In many parts of the world however, poor management and climate change have led to soil degradation and a huge amount of carbon released by the top layer soil over the past 12,000 years....

Through half a million years of isolation, primates of the Mentawai Islands evolved into five distinct species, totally different from their relatives on the nearest mainland, Sumatra. These endemic species include the pig-tailed snub-nosed langur, Mentawai gibbon, Mentawai langur, Pagai macaque, and Siberut macaque. Except for the last, the other four species are Critically Endangered or Endanger...

Difference in standards across countries and regions can sometimes make sustainability reporting tricky. So how can such differences be better reconciled?  Simon Schillebeeckx, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Handprint  and Ramki Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Temenos APAC share about the challenges involved in collecting, streamlining and ensuring quality of ESG data, and how knowing how...

Changes in climate and the effects resulting from climate change control how plants grow, how animals behave, which organisms thrive, and how they interact with the physical environment, especially within forests. Through the fossils that ancient forests left behind, scientists who have tracked their movements over decades say that heat stress is one of key factors pushing forests to migrate. But...

Did you know that cows burp and fart just like humans?  Each time a cow burps or passes out gas, a little puff of methane wafts into the atmosphere. In fact, a single cow can produce 70 to 120 kg of methane a year.  On this episode of Climate Connections, we shine a spotlight on 2023 Earthshot Prize Finalist Sam Elsom, Co-Founder and CEO of Sea Forest - a climate startup that has come up with a wa...

Hotels or lodging are an essential part of travel, which is seeing a rise once again as the pandemic retreats into the shadows. As you wind down this year-end, perhaps take some time to think about how much carbon footprint you contribute when it comes to where you stay on your travels.   With the voice on climate change growing louder, some hotels have joined the bandwagon to do their part for th...

A little climate threat lurks in the form of a substance with a sight and smell that we are hardwired to be disgusted with - sewage. Little is known about the real extent of industrial discharge that ends up in our wastewater systems, but researchers have found that untreated sewage discharge brings more harm to the environment and living communities than surrounding land use. But, wastewater mana...

Air is the basic life support for all living beings on Earth, including humans. But clean air isn't always a given for those living in Poland and India - countries plagued by air pollution caused by various forms of burning - to keep warm during cold winters and to get rid of agricultural waste respectively.  In this episode of Climate Connections, we feature the inside story with: Vidyut Mohan, C...

COP28 kicks off in Dubai today (30 Nov 2023).  This year, it will be the first time that humanity formally assesses its progress under the 2015 Paris climate agreement of keeping global warming below 1.5˚C. But have you wondered what goes behind the closed doors of climate negotiations and what churns in the minds of leading negotiators? In this episode of Climate Connections, we feature: Andrew M...

Time and tide wait for no man! This saying applies aptly to our natural ecosystems as well. Ahead of COP28, scientists are warning that our coastal habitats could disappear in the next 30 years, if global warming and rising sea levels are not curbed within limits set out by the Paris Agreement. On this episode of Climate Connections, Professor Benjamin Horton, Director, Earth Observatory of Singap...

Colour is what makes your clothes pop. But, those dyes that are used to colour your clothes are actually really bad for the environment because most are made from fossil fuel chemicals. On this episode of Climate Connections, we feature Christopher Hunter, Chief Operating Officer, Colorifix - a UK-based company that’s harnessing the colour-changing ability of bacteria in nature to make those dyes....

From bottles and bags, to less obvious sources like teabags and clothes - plastic pollution is any plastic that ends up in the environment.  With the global call to fight climate change growing louder, innovators are hard at work to develop solutions that can make plastic disappear.  On this episode of Climate Connections: The Earthshot Prize 2022 winner, Rodrigo García González, Co-Founder &...

How challenging is it to take a shot at saving the planet? It sure ain’t easy, but innovators around the world are attempting to do so, each in their very own ways.  On this episode of Climate Connections, Sarah Cragg, Head of Asia Pacific for The Earthshot Prize , which is the brainchild of Britain’s Prince William - shares more insights on what the climate-focused charity is up to, ahead of Prin...

Over the past half century, Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, has undergone rapid population growth, resulting in the loss of millions of trees due to urban development in the city. On this episode of Climate Connections, Manja Kargbo, Co-Architect of Freetown The TreeTown initiative and finalist of The Earthshot Prize 2023 shares how the city is on course to meet its ambitious target of plan...

It’s World Food Day today! Did you know that what we eat and how the food is produced are closely linked to sustaining ageing populations and their well-being?  On this episode of Climate Connections, it’s a deep dive with Francois Scheffler, Regional Vice-President of Health, Nutrition and Care for Asia Pacific at dsm-firmenich , to find out what innovative solutions can be tapped on to push comm...

Modern kitchens in urbanised cities usually boast a host of advanced cooking tools that not just cut down cooking time, but also absorb cooking fumes! But did you know, the simple act of cooking often turns deadly for low-income communities living in Africa?  On this episode of Climate Connections, Charlot Magayi, Founder & CEO of Mukuru Clean Stoves and Winner of Clean Our Air, Earthshot Priz...

What are the real challenges behind finding an equitable solution to balance out our needs and those whose livelihoods depend on the fossil fuel industry, versus the longer term goal of protecting Mother Earth? On this episode of Climate Connections, we dive into whether the complete phase-out of fossil fuels is a realistic dream with Dr Swati Sharma, Lecturer at NTU’s School of Social Sciences ....

Japan’s plan to gradually release more than a million tonnes of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has deeply divided nations and scientists. But, a month after the first discharge, Japanese authorities say no detectable amount of tritium has been found in fish samples taken from waters near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. On this episode of Climate Connections -...

In this episode of Climate Connections - from a rainforest and wetlands built from scratch right in the heart of a school in Singapore, to a customised outdoor syllabus targeting underserved communities in Europe, we explore how science educators are bringing STEM learning out of the classroom.  A deep dive into all that with Commonwealth Secondary School’s Senior Teacher for Biology, Jacob Tan, H...

Coral reefs, often called the rainforests of the ocean, are key underwater ecosystems that support a rich variety of marine life. Despite their crucial role in sustaining life underwater, the existence of coral reefs are coming under increasing pressure due to climate change and human activities.  Marine scientists Dr Karenne Tun, Director, Coastal & Marine and Terrestrial Branches National Bi...

It’s a wake-up call, as this year’s ongoing spring wildfires in Canada get fiercer - working their way closer to the country’s worst on record. With future fires projected to be hotter and larger, we dig deep to uncover some of the root causes, impact on biodiversity, and how scientists are working to better tackle the situation, one genetic fragment at a time - with Dr Karen Hodges, Professor for...