Online GW talk and Biodiversity Loss talk for IRAS (Nov)

Ms Zhuang Jiayang, Principal Data Management Officer in Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), invited Earth Society to conduct 2 online Environment Talks for their staffs during their IRAS Green Week event. IRAS organized a Green Week from 09 Nov to 13 Nov to promote environmental awareness and eco-friendly life style, such as Bring your own container, reduce plastic usage etc. This is the 3^rd year IRAS invited us to conduct talks for their staffs.

Earth Society supported their Green Week event by conducting 2 online talks for the staffs. We conduct a Global Warming Zoom talk for 30 staffs on 09 Nov. We conducted another Biodiversity Loss/ Environmental Conservation talk for 40 staffs on 13 Nov. Both talks are conducted from 12 pm to 1 pm.

In the Biodiversity Loss talk, we presented on Overfishing in our Oceans, Deforestation on our Land, Green House Gas emissions in our Atmosphere, Loss in Biodiversity and Factory farming. We also touched on issues such as No Shark fin, reduce Factory farming, Veggie days and UNEP ‘Planetary Health Diet’. We introduced various environmental heros to the participants. We introduced Sea Shepherd (protect the Ocean), Sharksavers (protect the Sharks), Dr Jane Goodall (protect the Rainforest) and Dr Jame Hansen (reduce Global Warming) in the talk. IRAS officers listen attentively to the talk and many staffs requested us to share our slides with them after the talk.

IRAS recorded the 2 Zoom talks and placed it in their website so that staffs who could not attend the online talks could watch and benefit from the talks after the event.

Feedback for Global Warming:Talk

Eye-opening talk that makes clear the realities of our actions. I didn’t realise the amount of water and trees used to produce the meat that we eat. Good session packed with loads of useful information on the steps we can all take to do better. Thank you!  - Yeo You Liang, Senior Tax Auditor, IRAS

The talk was informative with well-organised content. The speaker was engaging and explained the various concepts well. Even if we haven’t done so before, its never too late to start and take steps in the right direction. – Joseph, IRAS staff

Feedback for Biodiversity Loss Talk:

Good intro to raise awareness on the impact of our daily actions on our environment. Appreciated the quick tips given by speaker. It gave everyone an opportunity to start small in saving the environment (e.g. meatless Monday concept) I tried it out and I hope to sustain the weekly “ritual”. Peer support from the Green Ambassador community helped!  -  Hui Yan, IRAS staff.

It was a very informative talk to learn facts on how our current way of living is severely draining the Earth’s resources in an irreversible way. The speakers’ tips are constantly on my mind now and I have started making some small personal changes e.g. avoid eating large fishes, reduce usage of plastics whenever possible etc. Lifestyle changes are always hard so hopefully I can sustain these practices!
-  Zhuang Jiayang, Principal Data Management Officer, IRAS 

Online GW talk for UWCSEA Dover (Nov)

Ms Arushi Sivasankar, a student from United World College of South East Asia Dover, invited Earth Society to conduct a Global Warming talk for her student group on 06 Nov.,

Ms Arushi Sivasankar belongs to a student group ‘Biosverde’. She informed that UWCSEA has Veggie Wednesday in the school and they are very interested in knowing the difference it would make,

On 06 Nov, Earth Society joined in the online Zoom meeting at 12.30 pm. We conducted a Global Warming talk for 30 youths from 12.45 pm to 1.40 pm. We presented on the effects of Climate change on the world and showcased various solutions that scientists recommended to curb climate change. (Plant trees, Eat less meat, Green energy and 3Rs). We also spoke about the environmental benefits of supporting Veggie days. The youths listened attentively to the talk.

After the talk, Ms Arushi Sivasankar helped to gather some feedback from the participants and send the feedback to us via email.

Feedback from Students

- I found Earth Society’s presentation extremely engaging, the combination of statistics with visuals made it very interesting.

- The presentation was very informative and factual, with many statistics to illustrate the effects of Climate Change.

- The presentation was very in depth about the effects of Climate Change all over the world. It would be interesting to have more of an emphasis on how Climate Change is affecting Singapore specifically. This would help combat the problem of us students feeling detached from the climate crisis (which we find to be quite a pervasive sentiment here).

Online GW talk for Katong School (Nov)

Ms Korinn Peh, a teacher in Katong School, invited Earth Society to conduct an online Zoom workshop for the school cohort on 02 Nov.

On 02 Nov, Earth Society hosted a Zoom meeting at 12.20 pm. We conducted a Global Warming talk (primary version) for 20 teachers and 200 students from 12.30 pm to 1 pm. We presented on the effects of Climate change on the world and showcased various solutions that scientists recommended to curb climate change. (Plant trees, Eat less meat, Green energy and 3Rs). Teachers and students listened attentively to the talk.

After the talk, Ms Korinn Peh helped to gather some feedback from the teachers and send the feedback to us via email.

Feedback from Teachers

- Videos and examples used make students understand better.

- Very informative. Make it easier and simpler for lower primary students to understand.

Ecosperity Webinar (Oct)

Ecosperity team send an email invitation for Earth Society members to participate in their “Biodiversity: An Essential Service “ live webinar held on 19 Oct.

Speakers invited for the webinar included:

- Dr Daniel Friess, Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, 

- Dr Sonja Luz, Director of Conservation, Research & Veterinary Services at Wildlife Reserves Singapore and 

- Dr Andie Ang, President of the Jane Goodall Institute (Singapore),

On 19 Oct, Earth Society member participate in the webinar from 5.30 pm to 7 pm to listen to the presentations and join in the discussions after the presentation.

Topics discussed included:

- How a healthy natural environment has strengthened the economic performance and liveability of Singapore;

- How quantifying the economic and societal values of biodiversity can help incorporate nature into urban planning; and

- Actionable steps that everyone can take to help conserve nature

We raised the question of reducing meat consumption and supporting Meatless/ Veggie days as a step that everyone can take to help conserve Nature.

The speakers were supportive of reducing meat consumption to reduce deforestation and conserve the biodiversity of the planet. The participants discussed actively on Zoom Chat on ways to reduce meat consumption such as creating meat tax and subsidizing plant-based diet. Participants also suggested recommending documentaries such as “Cowspiracy”, “What the Health’, “Game changer” to others to encourage them to reduce meat consumption.

We are glad that the speakers and participants of the webinar are aware of the detrimental impact of the animal industry on the environment. We hope the environmental people will be more vocal about encouraging people to reduce meat consumption, support veggie days to protect the Biodiversity of the planet and conserve the natural resources in the world.

Online GW talk for Saint Gobain Pte Ltd (Oct)

Ms Desy Ang, from Saint Gobain (Sg) Pte Ltd, invited Earth Society to conduct an online Global Warming talk for their staffs on 13 Oct. As this is the first time a company used Microsoft Teams platform to invite us, we arranged with the company to have a trial test before the actual presentation itself.

On 13 Oct, Earth Society team joined Ms Desy Ang online via Microsoft Teams at 9.45 am. By 10 am, 20 Saint Gobain staffs joined in the platform to attend the talk.

We conducted a Global Warming talk for Saint Gobain staffs from 10 am to 11 am. We presented on the effects of Climate change on the world and showcased various solutions that scientists recommended to curb climate change. (Plant trees, Eat less meat, Green energy and 3Rs). The staffs listened attentively to the talk.

After the talk, Ms Desy sent us some feedbacks for the talk:

“Each and every one can contribute to the sustainability of our planet. This talk is a good reminder to all of us.”

“I feel more motivated to have a balance diet as suggested by Health Promotion Board.”