Synopsis: Every first and third Tuesday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.
Podcasters: Audrey Tan & David Fogarty
Produced and edited by: Hadyu Rahim
Executive producers: Ernest Luis & Lynda Hong
A podcast by The Straits Times, SPH Media.
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S2E2: Bezos Earth Fund's menu for Asia: Bugs, slaughter-free meat and fermented protein
Season 2 · Episode 2
Saturday, September 14, 2024 • Duration 17:28
In the bid to make alternative protein palatable to the consumer, South-east Asian cuisine offers some advantages.
Synopsis: Every first and third Sunday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.
Home to glitzy bars and Michelin star restaurants, Singapore is a foodie paradise. It is a reputation that extends well beyond the dinner plate – and it is not just diners who are noticing.
The country’s research into ways of feeding the world in ways that are more beneficial for the climate and nature is also attracting global attention.
On Sept 5, the Bezos Earth Fund launched Asia’s first Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein at the National University of Singapore, with a $39 million commitment from the Bezos Earth Fund. The fund was started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as a philanthropic commitment to address the climate crisis.
What does this centre hope to do, and how will it help with Asia’s protein pivot? Green Pulse co-hosts Audrey Tan and David Fogarty get the lowdown from Dr Andy Jarvis, director of future of food at the Bezos Earth Fund.
Highlights (click/tap above):
1:57 The link between food production, climate change and nature loss
4:27 Is producing alternative protein really more climate-friendly than regular animal-based protein?
5:34 What is the gap in alternative protein R&D identified by the Bezos Earth Fund?
9:23 What is the role of philanthropy in the great protein pivot toward sustainable source?
12:28 The focus for Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein in the National University of Singapore
14:27 What is one advantage that South-east Asian cuisine has over others, in terms of the move to sustainable protein?
S2E1: Eco-nomics: Putting a value on nature is also key to saving it
Season 2 · Episode 1
Saturday, August 31, 2024 • Duration 23:23
Businesses are buying into new financial products that could help save nature, but funds for nature’s protection have not reached the scale required.
Synopsis: Every first and third Sunday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.
Coral reef bonds, biodiversity credits and schemes that enable national debt to be forgiven in exchange for conservation efforts.
These are just some of the financial instruments that have been in the news recently, as the world races to find the funds needed to prevent nature from falling into further decline. But when did the financial sector start paying attention to nature, and can their involvement in conservation truly help to protect and restore natural ecosystems?
Financing for nature is expected to be a key topic of discussion at the COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia in October. In the lead-up to the United Nations summit, Green Pulse co-hosts Audrey Tan and David Fogarty discuss the role of the financial sector in nature conservation with Ms Hoon Ling Min, investment director at decarbonisation investment platform GenZero.
Highlights (click/tap above):
4:05 Who are the buyers of nature-linked investment products?
9:14 What drives the development of new types of nature-related financial products?
15:43 In the absence of a measurable metric for nature, how can biodiversity benefits be quantified?
17:30 How important is the role of the private sector in protecting nature?
S1E124: Why the warming Himalayas are a water crisis for half of Asia
Season 1 · Episode 124
Saturday, June 1, 2024 • Duration 20:51
Local solutions are critical for vulnerable millions as the scorching heat rapidly melts snow and ice across the fragile "third pole".
Synopsis: Every first and third Sunday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.
As the planet warms, with north India’s plains sweltering under an unprecedented heat wave, Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than ever before. On current trends, glaciers in just the Eastern Himalayas, which include Nepal and Bhutan, will lose up to 75 per cent of their ice in the near future.
The accelerated melt will expand existing glacial lakes, and form new ones. The new and enlarged lakes are a hazard as they can burst their banks and let loose all the water in flash floods downstream. In October 2023, a lake in Northern Sikkim breached, destroying an entire dam and 33 bridges downstream, killing scores of people.
But that is only one aspect of the impact of planetary warming on the so-called Third Pole - which supplies water to around 1.5 billion people. The climate crisis is a water crisis which is already affecting half of Asia.
In this episode, Green Pulse host Nirmal Ghosh discusses the complex factors at play, and their implications, with Kunda Dixit, the Kathmandu-based publisher of Nepali Times, and visiting faculty at NYU in Abu Dhabi where he focuses on climate; and Dr Bandana Shakya - also based in Kathmandu - who coordinates the Landscapes portfolio at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
Highlights (click/tap above):
2:34 There is plenty of water; just not where it’s needed
3:53 Data sharing is critical but the process is inadequate
7:17 Depopulation of some mountain districts is up to 30 per cent in the last 10 years
12:20 Appreciating potential of co-designing nature-based solutions
17:20 Sometimes scientific collaboration is much easier than political collaboration
S1E38: Road to a green recovery from Covid-19: Green Pulse Ep 38
Season 1 · Episode 38
Thursday, December 3, 2020 • Duration 15:40
Green Pulse Ep 38: Road to a green recovery from Covid-19
15:39 mins
Synopsis: Every first and third Monday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change in this podcast series.
In this episode, ST’s environment correspondent Audrey Tan and climate change editor David Fogarty host Singapore Management University assistant professor of strategic management Simon Schillebeeckx on what a “green recovery” from Covid-19 could look like for Singapore.
They discuss the following points:
What does a green recovery really mean? (0:58)
What is the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on companies and consumers? (5:08)
What do we need to do? Identify emerging sectors, reinvent primary industries and learn from nature (9:18)
Why nations need not fear the great green transition (13:38)
Listen to Pt 2 of this podcast discussion with Simon Schillebeeckx of SMU: https://str.sg/JEXc
S1E37: Peter Daszak on nurturing nature to prevent future pandemics: Green Pulse Ep 37
Season 1 · Episode 37
Thursday, November 19, 2020 • Duration 13:10
Green Pulse Ep 37: Peter Daszak on nurturing nature to prevent future pandemics
13:10 mins
Synopsis: Every first and third Monday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change in this podcast series.
In this episode, ST’s environment correspondent Audrey Tan and climate change editor David Fogarty host Dr Peter Daszak, president of non-profit Washington-based Ecohealth Alliance.
A report linking environmental damage and pandemics was recently published based on the findings of a major meeting hosted by IPBES, the UN biodiversity panel. The authors, including Dr Daszak, found that future pandemics will happen more often, kill more people and wreak even worse damage to the global economy than Covid-19. What can be done to reduce the risks of future pandemics?
They discuss the following points:
How a recent scientific report shows increasing risk of new infectious diseases and pandemics in this globalised world (1:00)
This report estimates another 1.7 million undiscovered viruses that exist in animals and why up to 850,000 of them can infect people (3:43)
Why there needs to be a global programme to prevent pandemics instead of reacting to them after: Can health risks within wildlife trade and even consumer consumption habits be controlled? (8:33)
Weighing the costs of prevention programmes against global economic damages from pandemics and why time is running out (10:06)
S1E36: Looking under the sea for a nature-based solution: Green Pulse Ep 36
Season 1 · Episode 36
Thursday, November 5, 2020 • Duration 16:44
Green Pulse Ep 36: Looking under the sea for a nature-based solution
16:44 mins
Synopsis: Every first and third Monday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change in this podcast series.
In this episode, ST’s environment correspondent Audrey Tan and climate change editor David Fogarty host Dr Siti Maryam, a marine ecologist at the environmental consultant company DHI Water & Environment, about an ocean-based solution to tackling climate change: Seagrass.
Seagrass meadows can be found in Singapore waters, and a 2015 study had found that the seagrass meadow at Chek Jawa on offshore Pulau Ubin contained about 138 metric tonnes of carbon per hectare of seagrass -- equivalent to emissions from 69,000 taxi rides between Marina Bay and Changi Airport.
Yet, these habitats face many threats from human activity, including land reclamation and poor water quality. How can these stores of blue carbon be better protected and restored? Tune in to find out.
They discuss the following points:
How do you differentiate seagrass from seaweed and other algae? (2:15)
How do seagrass meadows function as a nature-based solution? (3:40)
What are the threats faced by seagrass meadows around the world? (9:21)
What are solutions for restoring seagrass meadows? (11:50)
S1E35: Getting to the bottom of plastic pollution: Green Pulse Ep 35
Season 1 · Episode 35
Thursday, October 22, 2020 • Duration 16:35
Green Pulse Ep 35: Getting to the bottom of plastic pollution
16:35 mins
Synopsis: Every first and third Monday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change in this podcast series.
Every year, millions of tonnes of plastic waste end up in the ocean. From plastic bags to bottles, cigarette lighters to fishing nets and flip flops, the trash fouls beaches, kills seabirds and marine animals and creates vast garbage patches.
In this episode, ST’s environment correspondent Audrey Tan and climate change editor David Fogarty speak with scientist Denise Hardesty, a specialist in plastic pollution and illegal fishing at Australia’s national science agency. Dr Hardesty is a co-author of a recent study which calculated that there is about 14 million tonnes of microplastic waste at the bottom of the world’s oceans, showing nowhere is free from plastic pollution.
They discuss the following points:
What a new CSIRO study on microplastics in the ocean has found (3:47)
Whether microplastics consumed by seafood could end up on dinner plates (6:25)
What happens to plastic when they enter the ocean? (8:17)
What are the solutions to dealing with the scourge of plastic? (11:30)
S1E34: The climate change detectives: Green Pulse Ep 34
Season 1 · Episode 34
Friday, October 9, 2020 • Duration 20:49
Green Pulse Ep 34: The climate change detectives
20:49 mins
Synopsis: The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.
Every year we seem to be facing more and more extreme weather events. This year, it’s been fires in Australia, Siberia and now the US West Coast. Record floods have caused havoc in China, while polar ice caps are melting faster. But can we link individual events to climate change?
In this episode, ST’s environment correspondent Audrey Tan and climate change editor David Fogarty speak with climate scientist Friederike Otto, who is the acting director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, and co-lead of World Weather Attribution, an international effort to analyse and communicate the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events.
For more climate news, follow Prof Otto on Twitter at @FrediOtto.
S1E33: How apocalyptic wildfires in California affect Singapore: Green Pulse ep 33
Season 1 · Episode 33
Thursday, September 24, 2020 • Duration 19:01
Green Pulse Ep 33: How apocalyptic wildfires in California affect Singapore
19:01 mins
Synopsis: Green Pulse is an environmental podcast series at The Straits Times which analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.
Images of the apocalyptic wildfires in the American south-west have dominated headlines around the world. But what do the intense blazes there have to do with nations far away, such as Singapore?
In this episode, ST’s environment correspondent Audrey Tan and climate change editor David Fogarty speak with climate scientist Peter Kalmus on the climate change link. Dr Kalmus is from National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the United States, and is speaking to The Straits Times on his own behalf.
They discuss the following points:
What is driving the wildfires in the west coast of the United States? (3:38)
What does the fire crisis in the US mean for countries farther away? (5:57)
How are the growing amounts of emissions from human activities causing more intense blazes? (8:31)
What is the role of the individual in tackling the climate crisis? (14:48)
For more climate news, follow Dr Kalmus on Twitter
S1E32: Desmond Lee on balancing development and conservation in land-scarce Singapore: Green Pulse Ep 32
Season 1 · Episode 32
Wednesday, September 23, 2020 • Duration 12:46
Green Pulse Ep 32: Desmond Lee on balancing development and conservation in land-scarce Singapore
12:45 mins
Synopsis: Green Pulse is an environmental podcast series at The Straits Times which analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.
Singapore aspires to be a City in Nature, with plans afoot to conserve its green spaces and infuse nature into the urban setting. But the perennial tussle between development and conservation will remain.
In the third and final episode of The Straits Times’ interview with National Development Minister Desmond Lee, hear how the Government will aim to better strike this balance.
They discuss the following:
How science and technology can help inform conservation decisions (2:27)
Taking a landscape approach to ensure ecological connectivity in Singapore (4:02)
Nurturing a consultative approach between nature groups and policy-makers (5:34)
How Minister Lee himself will urge both policy-makers and nature groups to listen to one another (8:59)
Listen to the first and second parts of the interview with Minister Desmond Lee on Green Pulse.
Produced by: Audrey Tan (audreyt@sph.com.sg) & David Fogarty (dfogarty@sph.com.sg) & Ernest Luis
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