Spotlight on how biodiversity and climate change are linked

Climate change and biodiversity have been treated as two separate issues for some time, but in recent years, there has been greater awareness about their close links.

This was one of the points raised by Ms Kong Man Jing, a panellist at a webinar yesterday titled Connecting The Green Dots. She was joined by two other environmental champions, Ms Melissa Low and Ms Woo Qiyun.

The trio were in conversation with Straits Times climate change editor David Fogarty. The webinar is the second one related to the news outlet's ongoing photo exhibition, Through The Lens.

Ms Kong, 27, co-founder of local science and nature education channel Just Keep Thinking, said: "Even in the nature community here, there is always this unofficial and unintentional segregation between the biodiversity and wildlife experts, and the sustainability and climate change players. But we are bridging the gaps now."

Ms Kong noted that warming waters caused by climate change put stress on coral reefs and cause them to turn white, a phenomenon known as coral bleaching.

She also noticed that migratory birds have been reaching Singapore earlier and bird migration schedules seem to be shifting due to climate change.

A 2019 paper published in Nature Climate Change reported that rising temperatures have been causing birds to migrate a little earlier each spring.

But she identified one living thing that is thriving in warmer temperatures: mosquitoes. Warmer temperatures allow them to breed faster, increasing the risk of dengue and other vector-borne diseases.

Ms Kong's science channel runs on YouTube and social media where she educates viewers on various topics, including how marine life in intertidal zones glow under UV light.

Like her, the other two panellists are also on a mission to dissect the technicalities behind climate science and biodiversity to educate people - largely through social media and infotainment.

Ms Low, 34, a climate policy observer from the National University of Singapore's Energy Studies Institute, has attended more than a decade of United Nations Climate Change Conferences, with the latest one, COP26, in Glasgow last year.

She has also been conducting training sessions to explain climate negotiations to young people, and frequently publishes 2,500-word policy briefs to explain issues related to energy and climate.

Ms Woo, 25, is a sustainability professional who runs an Instagram page, @theweirdandwild, filled with illustrations that untangle topics related to climate change.

She does this in a bite-sized manner through her cartoon avatar - brightly coloured blobs with large eyes.

"As a visual learner, it was very hard for me to memorise a thousand-word essay or textbooks. And I thought, what if more people could get in touch with climate issues through a blob who is here telling you (that learning about climate science) is not that scary," said Ms Woo.

One of her Instagram posts last year explained COP26 and the 2015 Paris Agreement in comic form, narrated by the blobs.

Ms Low noted at the webinar that stress and eco-anxiety - the fear of environmental perils - are emerging among many young people and climate activists.

She said: "It is also important to take time to turn off the news, if you can, and try to calm yourself because we are in this for the long haul."