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