Climate Connections Money FM

Have you been to Phillip Island Nature Parks in Australia? 

It’s home to the largest little penguin population - better known as fairy penguins - globally. They’re the smallest penguin species in the world. 

But today’s focus is on another seabird - short-tailed shearwaters that use Phillip Island as their breeding grounds! From this week, four-month old fledglings are starting their migration and the Phillip Island Nature Parks is calling for individuals and businesses on the island to switch off their lights at night.

Short-tailed shearwaters are mid-sized migratory birds that travel from the Southern to Northern Hemisphere each year, migrating from Australia towards Japan, then across to the Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea to the north of Alaska. They manage this massive 16,000km journey in under four weeks, all before returning to the shores of Phillip Island (Millowl).

Among the most vulnerable are seabirds, with shearwaters facing the greatest risk. In a series of studies by Phillip Island Nature Parks exploring the negative effect of artificial lights on shearwaters, light pollution is now at the forefront of negative factors disrupting the delicate balance of ecosystems. 

On this episode of Climate Connections, Dr Duncan Sutherland, Senior Scientist, Phillip Island Nature Parks why the night lights are so detrimental to the short-tailed shearwaters during migration season, conservation efforts under the "Dark Sky So Shearwaters Fly" campaign and how you can do your part.

Feature produced and edited by: Yeo Kai Ting (ykaiting@sph.com.sg)

Voiced by: Audrey Siek

Photo/Sound credits: Phillip Island Nature Parks

Music credits: pixabay & its talented community of contributors
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Quite unsurprisingly, demand for batteries is expected to increase 30% each year until 2030.

A greater need for batteries to power more electric vehicles means increased demand for metals like lithium, a finite resource whose extraction has raised ecological and human rights issues. 

Lithium mining takes a heavy toll - trees are often cut down to make room for mines, chemicals used in the process can poison waterways, and meanwhile, millions of tonnes of batteries are expected to be decommissioned over the coming decades, creating hazardous waste.

But have you ever thought about how sustainable your batteries are? 

On this episode of Climate Connections, Justin Hung, CEO & Co-Founder of GRST (which stands for Green, Renewable, Sustainable Technology) and 2023 Earthshot Prize winner shares about the cleaner process he developed to make batteries that pollutes less and uses components that can be more easily recycled.

The eco-friendly lithium batteries technology start-up aims to raise US$50 million over the next two years.

Feature produced and edited by: Yeo Kai Ting (ykaiting@sph.com.sg)

Voiced by: Emaad Akhtar

Photo credits: Earthshot Prize

Music credits: pixabay & its talented community of contributors
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rice is a key staple in many diets around the world. But did you know that rice production accounts for over 10% of global methane emissions? These emissions in turn contribute to climate change.

Bali is an Indonesian island known for its stunning landscapes, famous for its terraced rice fields that cascade down hillsides, creating a picturesque environment. But beyond aesthetics, the Bali rice fields and the Subak system are closely intertwined and they represent the lifeblood of Bali's cultural and agricultural heritage. 

The Subak system, recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, refers to the traditional irrigation system developed by Balinese farmers to manage water distribution and cultivation in flooded rice fields. It is a cooperative and democratic system that emphasises harmony between nature and the community.

On this episode of Climate Connections - Sharadha Sathiakumar, Research Fellow, Earth Observatory of Singapore shares more about her project exploring potential solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in the rice fields of Bali located in Indonesia, the fourth-largest producer of rice worldwide.

She found that the Intermittent Wetting and Drying technique allowing local farmers to improvise based on their experience could very well be the solution to reducing the greenhouse gases emitted by the rice you eat! The results of this experiment were very promising: both methane and nitrous oxide emissions reduced, and rice yield increased.

Feature produced and edited by: Yeo Kai Ting (ykaiting@sph.com.sg)

Voiced by: Emaad Akhtar

Photo credits: Sharadha Sathiakumar, Joanne Petrina, Earth Observatory of Singapore

Music credits: pixabay & its talented community of contributors
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ice-cold, juicy oysters definitely sound like a good idea, as we search for ways to beat the heat in recent weeks! But have you ever wondered what happens to the oyster shells afterwards?

On this episode of Climate Connections, we feature two local ecologists - Yukie Yokoyama and Erika Ng from Witteveen+Bos - who are giving discarded oyster shells a new lease of life in Singapore by creating the country's first artificial oyster reef at the jetty near Changi Sailing Club.

Find out more about their journey to find ways to help Singapore fight pollution, improve marine biodiversity, and protect against coastal erosion - through the help of oyster reefs.

And as they say - "The world is your oyster!"

Feature produced and edited by: Yeo Kai Ting (ykaiting@sph.com.sg)

Voiced by: Audrey Siek

Photo credits: Yukie Yokoyama & Erika Ng

Music credits: pixabay & its talented community of contributors
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Plastic consumption has increased exponentially in recent years.

When plastics enter the ocean, microorganisms attach to and colonise them, forming an ecological community known as the ‘Plastisphere’.

But we don’t really know much about these colonies. What we know, is that plastics can be silent killers of marine life.

Plastics also carry other chemical compounds called additives in addition to the polymer resin, and these materials can actually leach into the environment. 

To understand the plastic-microbes interaction, NTU researchers extracted DNA information of plastispheres gathered from 14 coastal locations in Singapore, and they found both potential plastic-eating bacteria and harmful microbes thriving on the samples.

On this episode of Climate Connections, we feature: 

- Jonas Koh (NTU doctoral student, Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering)

- Professor Shane Allen Snyder (Executive Director, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute)

Feature produced and edited by: Yeo Kai Ting (ykaiting@sph.com.sg)

Voiced by: Audrey Siek

Photo credits: NTU

Music credits: pixabay & its talented community of contributors
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Andes stands out for its striking species richness and endemicity that characterise many emblematic Neotropical clades distributed in or around these mountains. It's also a vital region, with its highland forests providing water for millions of people downstream. 

However, this rich ecosystem is increasingly threatened by rapid development, mining and climate change.

With the glaciers melting and forests disappearing, 2023 Earthshot Prize winners Florent Kaiser, CEO of Global Forest Generation and Constantino Aucca Chutas, President & Co-founder of Acción Andina are working hard to restore the degraded ecosystems of the Andes and secure the water supply for local communities. 

On this episode of Climate Connections, we go on a journey to find out how they are reviving ancient indigenous practices and galvanising the help of multi-generations of locals and partners to conserve the Andes and beyond.

Feature produced and edited by: Yeo Kai Ting (ykaiting@sph.com.sg)

Voiced by: Emaad Akhtar

Photo credits: Acción Andina, Earthshot Prize 

Music credits: pixabay & its talented community of contributors
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.