SINGAPORE – Temperatures are rising due to climate change, and the need to help people – especially those from vulnerable communities – cope with the heat is becoming more urgent.
But with warm temperatures being something that many people living in tropical Singapore are already accustomed to, at what point does the heat become a public health risk?
And how is Singapore taking steps to protect people with high exposure to heat, such as outdoor workers?
Join us for a timely dialogue with experts on the issue at the fourth ST Podcasts Live event on Aug 12, which will be held at local swopping boutique The Fashion Pulpit in Jalan Besar.
Titled “Heat Stress & Us”, the dialogue is part of The Straits Times’ Green Pulse podcast, which provides a South-east Asian perspective on climate change and environmental issues.
New episodes are aired every first and third Tuesday of the month.
ST deputy foreign editor David Fogarty and assistant news editor Audrey Tan, who co-host Green Pulse, will be speaking with Associate Professor Jason Lee, director of the Heat Resilience and Performance Centre at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.
Prof Lee is also the lead principal investigator of Project HeatSafe, a research initiative that studies the threat that heat poses to human health, wellbeing, and productivity in South-east Asia.
The dialogue will also involve Ms Jaime Lim, director of the major hazards and the occupational safety and health specialist departments at the Ministry of Manpower.
The Manpower Ministry had in 2023 rolled out new measures that required employers to take steps to protect outdoor workers from heat. Employers, for example, had to provide hourly rest breaks for workers when it gets too hot.
Following the discussion on heat, a second podcast recording will take place.
The second dialogue will touch on the reasons behind the increasing encounters between humans and wildlife in urban Singapore, and how such interactions should be managed to reduce conflict.
One of the recent cases of human-wildlife encounters involve long-tailed macaques spotted within a once-forested area in Punggol that is now a residential area.
The Straits Times earlier reported that the authorities had received over 200 reports of these monkeys over a seven-month period. The animals were spotted rummaging through bins and breaking into homes in search of food.
As Singapore embarks on greening initiatives to infuse the urban landscape with more vegetation, experts have warned that encounters between humans and wildlife will only increase.
A key point of the discussions will be how Singapore can achieve better co-existence between humans and the native wildlife that call the country home.
ST correspondents Shabana Begum and Ang Qing, who were the co-hosts of ST’s award-winning experiential podcast series Green Trails, will helm the second discussion.
They will host Mr Kalaivanan Balakrishnan, the co-chief executive of wildlife rescue group Animal Concerns Research & Education Society (Acres), and Ms Jasvic Lye, the campaign manager of Our Wild Neighbours, an initiative to educate the public on wildlife etiquette.
Passionate about animal welfare, Mr Balakrishnan carried out Acres’ first reptile repatriation in 2017 and was instrumental in ensuring that the wildlife rescue group continued to help animals during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ms Lye, a fine arts graduate, started her ongoing “Death By Man” photo series in 2017 to shed light on the devastating effects of urbanisation on wildlife.
Guests who sign up will be able to experience a live podcast recording session, and engage in a Q&A segment with panellists. Those interested can sign up at https://str.sg/podcastlive
ST Podcasts Live is a series launched this year to commemorate The Straits Times’ 180th anniversary.
The first ST Podcasts Live, on the topic of historic buildings, took place on Feb 12 at The Foundry. This was followed by the second event on April 15 at The Projector, which discussed diverse definitions of success.
In the third event on June 3 at Raffles Place Rasa, panellists spoke on how to build a fulfilling career. The live podcast on 12 Aug on environmental issues is the fourth in the series.
ST Podcast Live at The Fashion Pulpit
Where: #04-00 Allenby House, 298 Jln Besar When: August 12, 2025, 7pm to 9pm Topics: [Green Pulse Podcast] Heat Stress & Us [Green Pulse Podcast] Human-wildlife conflict How to sign up: str.sg/podcastlive
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction
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