Back to Blue’s lead editor, Naka Kondo speaks to Ben Alva, the founder of Azul Bio, a startup developing microbiome-based treatments and probiotics from nature that give ocean lifeimmunity to human impact, such as coral resilience. They are planning their first pilot in November.Follow the Back to Blue series for more podcast episodes, or visit backtoblueinitiative.com for more content.Back to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On March 14th 2023 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposal to establish legally enforceable levels for six types of ‘forever chemicals’ known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). It is expected to prevent thousands of deaths and reduce tens of thousands of serious illnesses attributable to PFAS. The rule would require public water systems to monitor PFAS levels, notify the public of these and reduce them if exceeding the proposed standards. Developed over several years and grounded in the authority that the EPA has from US Congress, through the Safe Drinking Water Act, the goal is to issue a final PFAS drinking water standard by the end of 2023 or early 2024. This will result in a standard to which all water systems in the US must adhere.Sarah Doll, national director for Safer States, an NGO fighting pollution, speaks to Naka Kondo, the lead editor of Back to Blue about the significance of the EPA proposal to limit PFAS in US drinking water - and what needs to happen next.Follow the Back to Blue series for more podcast episodes, or visit backtoblueinitiative.com for more content.Back to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Back to Blue's lead editor, Naka Kondo speaks to Anne Marieke Eveleens, co-founder and chief strategy officer of the Great Bubble Barrier, a Dutch social enterprise, about how air bubble technology can help clear plastics from our rivers.Follow the Back to Blue series for more podcast episodes, or visit backtoblueinitiative.com for more content.Back to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The era of AI has begun. Asia-Pacific’s spending on AI will reach around $50 billion in 2026. In the sixth episode of the series "Shelter from the storm: Investing in the era of uncertainty," sponsored by EquitiesFirst, we discuss the opportunities and risks around artificial intelligence investments in Asia-Pacific. Our guest speakers talk about the new business models emerging from the expanding industry applications of AI and how investors can leverage the associated investment opportunities. What AI can offer is almost limitless, but the opportunities don’t come without risks.Our guests are: William Bao Bean, managing director at Orbit Startups and general partner at SOSV Arvind Sethumadhavan, founder at The AI Living Lab"Shelter from the storm: Investing in the era of uncertainty" is a ten-part podcast series, supported by EquitiesFirst.The episode is hosted by Bilge Arslan, analyst, Policy and Insights at Economist Impact. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charles Darwin once dismissed the ocean as a ‘tedious waste, a desert of water.’ Some of his contemporaries disagreed. The brave Challenger expedition of the 1870s set out to discover what lurked beneath, traversing over 100,000 kilometres and discovered 4,772 specimens, from sea snails to snake eels, discovered the deepest trench on earth, and toppled false assumptions about the lack of life under the waves. Over a century later, the Census of Marine Life picked up the baton. An eighty-country collaboration, with 2,700 scientists, the project identified another 6,000 species. Yet even these numbers are a literal drop in the ocean. Oliver Steeds, Ocean Census director and chief executive of Nekton, a UK-based marine science and conservation institute, speaks to Naka Kondo, the lead editor of Back to Blue initiative about a new mission, the Ocean Census, launches this year with a far greater ambition: to find at least 100,000 new marine species in its first decade.Follow the Back to Blue series for more podcast episodes, or visit backtoblueinitiative.com for more content.Back to Blue is an initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.