PODCAST · science
Climate Connections
by Money FM
A special segment on Money FM 89.3's Breakfast Show that brings you on an exclusive audio journey to the ends of the world, covering in-depth environment, natural history and climate change stories that intertwine with human life on Earth.
Episodes
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Climate Connections: Why do the pH levels of the early oceans matter? And what does it tell us about Earth’s evolving habitability in the broader context of climate change?
A new study has found that ocean acidity may have prevented life on Earth from developing for the planet's first 500 million years. On this episode of Climate Connections, its study lead, Dr Guo Meng from the Asian School of the Environment at NTU weighs in on how ocean pH has evolved from our...
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Climate Connections: Climate change is creating that perfect rat storm
Over the years, scientists have linked climate change to rising sea levels, extreme weather and melting polar ice caps. But as the mercury rises, urban rat populations too are increasing. In the first research of its kind, scientists found that 11 of 16 cities studied had significant increasing...
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Climate Connections: Top things to know about mycorrhizal fungi and why they are "climate warriors"
Fungi represent an entire kingdom of life on Earth. In fact, millions of species of fungi share our space on this planet. And since soil contains more than three times as much carbon as the atmosphere, what fungi do in the soil could dramatically affect climate change. One group of fungi in...
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Climate Connections: How are climate change & human activities affecting soil quality & vice versa?
The soil beneath our feet is often forgotten and sometimes thought to be limitless and indestructible. But in fact, soil is key to feeding people, and in preserving the planet we live in. However, data by the Food and Agricultural Organisation shows that over 33% of soils worldwide are already...
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Climate Connections: How can we protect what we don't know? A deep dive into why new species discoveries are so crucial.
Species all over the world are declining at harrowing rates - driven by a mix of factors such as climate change and other human activities. But, there’s a bright light on the horizon. WWF's latest report reveals that 234 new species were discovered by scientists in the Greater Mekong region back…
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Climate Connections: Why is executing the High Seas Treaty to ensure sustainable fishing so challenging?
To protect our planet - meeting the global ‘30 by 30’ target of safeguarding 30% of oceans by 2030 is crucial. But that will not be possible without effective enforcement of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing - or IUU fishing - accounts for one of every…
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Climate Connections: Solomon Islands' First Female Rangers Break Barriers To Help Save Leatherback Turtles
Leatherback sea turtles are classified by the IUCN as Vulnerable on a global level, but their subpopulation in the Western Pacific are faring far worse than others. According to scientists, that population has declined to just 1,400 breeding adults, leaving them critically endangered. At the...
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Climate Connections: From Roots To Reef - Breathing new life into mangrove ecosystems in Lombok, Indonesia
Over the last three decades, deforestation has led to a 40% reduction in forest cover in Indonesia. Mangroves, one of the most essential ecosystems for coastal communities, have taken the fall in particular, with excessive logging activities reducing the seawater-tolerant species along…
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Climate Connections: Mission Blue - "Her Deepness" Dr Sylvia Earle's Lifelong Quest To Turn The Tides For Our Blue Planet
The ocean holds clues to past civilisations and cultures, provides a rich resource for new medicines and treatments, but more importantly, is home to millions of undiscovered species. Ocean scientists around the world have been seeking to unlock its secrets, but only just over 20% of the ocean...
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Climate Connections: Are you underconsuming what you have?
Do you use your things for what they are worth before throwing it out? With a lot more focus placed on fighting the effects of climate change, the pace at which we’re using our planet’s resources has also come into the spotlight. According to the World Economic Forum, high-income countries use...
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Climate Connections: Vulture Restaurants - Providing a lifeline for critically endangered vultures in Cambodia
Vultures are often misunderstood and feared as they are often pictured tearing the remains from rotting carcasses. But as nature’s critical clean-up crew, vultures play a vital role in maintaining the delicate balance of ecosystems and are intrinsically linked to human health. Evolved to be...
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Climate Connections: Cooking up a storm - How climate change is rewriting the rules of extreme storms
Every Atlantic hurricane that formed this year had higher wind speeds because of climate change. In fact, scientists found that the extra juice from warmer-than-average ocean temperatures pushed seven storms at least one category higher than they would have been without the influence of climate...
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Climate Connections: Lifeless Coral Reefs - 3D-printed good old-fashioned terracotta tiles to the rescue
Coral reefs have long been regarded as one of the earliest and most significant ecological casualties of global warming. And as ocean temperatures continue to rise, mass bleaching and die-offs have gone from being rare to a somewhat regular occurrence. Aside from climatic changes, human…
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Climate Connections: Will the ‘new collective quantified goal’ on climate finance be inclusive enough?
2024 is "virtually certain" to be the hottest on record. In recent months, the world has seen back-to-back hurricanes, catastrophic flooding, devastating typhoons and severe drought. It is against this backdrop that global leaders gather at the COP29 UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, where a...
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Climate Connections: Unlocking Earth's Superhot Geothermal Energy in the Taupō Volcanic Zone
Until now, geologists have been divided as to whether this superdeep, superhot resource can be tapped. Rock under high temperature and pressures - more than 373 degrees Celsius and 220 bars of pressure - is ductile, or gooey, as opposed to a smashable stone from your backyard. So far, data shows...
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Climate Connections: Tiny matters - Using acoustic sound waves to model how algae affects climate, human health
Algae are microscopic organisms that live in aquatic habitats and they use photosynthesis to produce energy from sunlight, just like plants. So far, there are over 50,000 species of living algae documented currently. And one thing that people sometimes forget is that algae are the base of many…
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Climate Connections: A scrap revolution - Challenges behind pushing the needle on industrial recycling
Industrial waste makes up at least 50% of waste generated globally. And much of that waste is the result of poor quality products from manufacturing processes, as well as the sheer complexity of manufacturing and supply chain management. As consumer awareness about the environmental impacts of...
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Climate Connections: Earth In Focus - Tapping On The Power Of Thought-Provoking Nature Films & Community For Conservation
Nature films tell the stories of the world's flora, fauna, and landscapes - often a journey into the secret lives of what exists around us. These stunning visual tales show us how we are interconnected with nature in many ways. This, in turn, allows us to better understand the current…
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Climate Connections: Farmers eye carbon credits as a way of regenerating revenue and nature
Nature is our life support system, but right now, it’s in trouble. WWF’s latest Living Planet Report reveals that the average size of wildlife populations have declined by a staggering 73% since 1970, providing a stark warning “that the world is fast approaching dangerous tipping points”. Habitat...
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Climate Connections: A third of African apes under threat as demand surges for critical minerals needed for clean energy technology
About 180,000 chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos could be directly or indirectly threatened by current and future mining projects for these transition metals, particularly in West Africa. With the world focusing its attention on clean energy transition, a boom in African mining activity is…
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Climate Connections: Australia-Asia Power Link Project awaiting Singapore's approval. Are cross-border collaborations the most important key to renewable energy adoption?
Solar power saw a boom in 2023, making it the fastest growing source of electricity generation for the 19th year running. This comes as countries around the world push for a transition towards greener sources of energy. Australia has given the go-ahead for a A$20 billion (US$13.5 billion) solar...
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Climate Connections: Monkey Business - How Singapore's "Jane Goodall" is pushing for langur conservation in SEA through the first genus action plan
Despite being highly threatened, only a few langur populations have been studied in detail, owing to their elusive nature, arboreality and the challenging terrains where they inhabit. As a result, conservation of these species has been challenging. Over 85 per cent of Asian langurs are threatened...
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Climate Connections: Turning trash to cash - How one business is recycling spent catalytic converters into precious metals
Platinum group metals (PGM) - a group of precious metals - such as platinum, palladium and rhodium, are traditionally recovered through underground and open pit mining within a linear economy, where the ore is mined, transformed into products and then disposed of as waste at the end of their…
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Climate Connections: Sunsetting the carbon era - How can the world "Speed & Scale" on climate goals?
To keep global warming to no more than 1.5°C - as called for in the Paris Agreement - emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. But as the days pass, the world is staring at a growing emissions gap. Back in 2021, Speed & Scale - a global initiative aimed at pushing...
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Climate Connections: Geology of the deep - Singapore at risk with 466 submarine volcanoes lurking at its doorstep
Singapore could be at risk of a tsunami, if an undersea volcano in its neighbouring region erupts. Globally, tens of thousands of submerged volcanoes lurk beneath the ocean's surface, often going unnoticed and are vastly understudied. With the help of published data sets and sea-floor topography...
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Climate Connections: Lost At Sea - DNA study of critically endangered hawksbill turtles to reveal their "lost years"
Like other sea turtles, hawksbill turtles are critically endangered due to the loss of nesting and feeding habitats, excessive egg collection, fishery-related mortality, pollution and coastal development. Currently, hawksbill turtles are protected by international agreements like the Convention…
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Climate Connections: Separating The Green From Greenwash - Nature Positive Transitions Must Build On Mitigation Hierarchy Applications
A new environmental movement is gathering pace: “Nature Positive”. The concept of "Nature Positive" envisages a planet where the current rapid loss of biodiversity is halted and reversed, and nature is restored. Since the term was coined in 2020 amid negotiations for the Global Biodiversity...
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Climate Connections: An egg farm that gets cracking - one of many local producers working to strengthen Singapore's food future
Can Singapore meet its “30 by 30” food sustainability goal? With the passing of the five-year mark since that goal was set - this question has been cast into the spotlight, following a series of delays, failures or re-configurations of high-tech farms of late. It hasn’t been easy for local...
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Climate Connections: Are lava flows an increasing threat to communities?
Back in historical times, volcanoes played a crucial role in the evolution of the planet and early life, and are constantly reshaping the morphology of Planet Earth. Today, about 500 active volcanoes presently exist on the Earth’s surface, with some 50 erupting each year, and more than 800…
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Climate Connections: An environmentalist's eureka moment & how she sowed the seeds of Singapore's Plant-A-Tree programme
“It's about sowing the right seeds. Seeds which will sprout, which will take root. And so how do we do that? We can't have change overnight, but we need to create a pipeline of the next generation of inventors, thinkers. Though we’re a little dot in this globe, we have that opportunity to nurture...
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Climate Connections: Propelling Action Through Polar Expeditions. ClimateForce Founder Barney Swan On Walking In The Footsteps Of His Father, Polar Explorer Robert Swan.
Imagine experiencing climate change effects first-hand right under the hole in the ozone layer. That's something that most people would not be able to fathom, but celebrated British polar explorer Robert Swan, the first person to have walked to both the North and South Poles unassisted…
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Climate Connections: "I Pick Subjects According To My Conscience." Emmy-award winning filmmaker Richie Mehta crafts an atmospheric tale on illegal ivory trade and why it matters
India is currently thought to have around 29,000 wild elephants, especially in the biodiverse Western Ghats region, including Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It’s also the country home to more than half of the global population. Although poaching, trafficking and trading of elephants and ivory…
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Climate Connections: From Doom to Do: The Case for Optimism in Fueling Climate Action
The world is in an era of dire warnings from many scientists and increasing natural disasters, record-breaking temperatures and rising tides. Time is running out to solve the climate crisis, and catastrophe looms. By now, you're probably used to seeing such headlines. But how can that…
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Climate Connections: Is this stool taken? Charting the dung beetle world in Singapore.
One insect species you probably never knew you needed - dung beetles! Dung beetles are found worldwide, on every continent except Antarctica. They live in habitats ranging from desert to forest and are classified into three basic groups: rollers, tunnelers, and dwellers. Those words describe how...
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Climate Connections: Living with lions: Clawing at the human-wildlife conflict up close & personal in Botswana
Lions are the apex predators of the African savanna, or what ecologists call - a keystone species. They play the critical role of managing large herbivore populations of impalas, zebras, buffalos, and even elephants and giraffes. In a balanced ecosystem, the number of herbivores needs to be kept…
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Climate Connections: Did you know your food waste emits greenhouse gases? One entrepreneur is using solar food dryers to combat that.
Farmers in India are contending with the impact of climate change every day as their crops are often subject to weather conditions, which are evolving as climate change becomes more deeply entrenched. Every year, about 30% of agricultural produce is wasted before it leaves the farms. And did you...
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Climate Connections: Financing a People-Centered Green Transition
At the COP28 Summit, for the first time since nations began meeting some three decades ago, nearly 200 countries convened by the United Nations approved a milestone plan to ramp up renewable energy and transition away from coal, oil and gas. With all eyes on the new deal - that is not legally...
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Climate Connections: Don't put all your eggs in one basket!
Did you know that in just Singapore alone, an average person can eat nearly 390 eggs in a year? Every stage of egg production contributes to greenhouse gases and other harmful emissions. Scientists from the University of Oviedo in Spain found that the carbon footprint of eggs is similar to that…
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Climate Connections: Climate change is impacting the air you breathe. But scientists say, the future solution already exists in Singapore!
Climate change is caused by the rise in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Such gases include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, which are long-lived compounds that can remain in the atmosphere for several years. But you might be wondering if climate change in turn impacts the…
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Climate Connections: Plant Poaching Crisis: How can you tell if your succulents are legally sourced & sustainable?
Calling out to plant parents, as well as those thinking of getting succulents to spruce up your homes! Increasingly, many popular ornamental plants are plucked from their natural habitats instead of being grown in nurseries. The consequences of this go beyond our living rooms, impacting entire...
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Climate Connections: Turn off for Take-off - Dark Sky So Shearwaters Fly
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…
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Climate Connections: Water might be the secret ingredient to greening batteries!
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…
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Climate Connections: The rice you eat contributes to carbon emissions! So, how do we cut it?
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...
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Climate Connections: Restaurant to Reef: An Oyster’s Journey - Ecologists braving stinky oyster shells to build "pearls" in Singapore's waters
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...
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Climate Connections: Plastisphere - Colonies of potential plastic-eating bacteria & harmful microbes on our shores
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...
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Climate Connections: Reviving ancient indigenous practices to fight degradation of the Andes and secure water for millions
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…
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Climate Connections: Sumatra's Forest Guardian - Leading a generation of powerful women to save Leuser’s last pristine rainforests
In the heart of Sumatra lies the Leuser Ecosystem - the last place on Earth where several of the key Sundaland mega-fauna species can still be found together: the tiger, orangutan, elephant, and rhino. But all that are under extreme threat due to unsustainable development. In the spirit of...
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Climate Connections: How this 11-year-old eco warrior is fighting back at climate change
What does sustainability mean to you? Challenges surrounding going green often involve an intricate web of complex problems that are interlinked. On this episode of Climate Connections, 11-year-old Aurvi Jain, Eco Warrior & TEDxSingapore Speaker explains why every single little action counts more...
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Climate Connections: High Hopes on the High Seas - Racing against time to find new marine species at risk of extinction
Life in oceans has evolved for three times as long as life on land, and it holds clues to four billion years of our evolutionary heritage. But although an estimated 2 million species inhabit our oceans, up to 90% remain undescribed. This longstanding void in the knowledge and observation of…
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Climate Connections: How wildlife traffickers exploit Chinese New Year
We’re just hours away from ringing in the Chinese New Year, and also the Year of the Dragon. It’s also typically a time when many might consider getting a pet that coincides with the zodiac for the year for good luck - bearded dragons in this case, even though they might be prohibited, depending…
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Climate Connections have?
Climate Connections currently has 72 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Climate Connections about?
A special segment on Money FM 89.3's Breakfast Show that brings you on an exclusive audio journey to the ends of the world, covering in-depth environment, natural history and climate change stories that intertwine with human life on Earth.
How often does Climate Connections release new episodes?
Climate Connections has 72 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to Climate Connections on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Climate Connections?
Climate Connections is created and hosted by Money FM.
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