Yeh spoke out on climate change and global warming during Earth Hour, the one hour when the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) encourages businesses and households worldwide to switch off their lights to raise awareness on climate change. Sea turtle eggs are influenced by a biological process known as Temperature-dependent sex determination, meaning that their gender is determined by the environmental temperature. Yeh reminded the public, “As the global climate’s average temperature increases, more females will be hatched, jeopardizing sea turtle populations with an unbalanced sex ratio.” In an interview with China's official state-run news agency, Xinhua News Agency, Yeh called for a celebrity to help save endangered sea turtles by raising public awareness. In 2014, Yeh was answered by former NBA basketball superstar Yao Ming, who consistently ranked #1 on the Forbes China Celebrity 100. Yao Ming joined Yeh in his public sea turtle release events and the duo set free rescued turtles back into the wild, raising awareness together that leads people to "an epiphany that turtles belong in the wild, and not in the market.” On June 8, 2015, Yeh led a large-scale event in which five (5) rescued sea turtles were released from different beaches around the island of Hainan to maximize conservation awareness for World Oceans Day as recognized by the United Nations. Yeh said, "The emotional experience of watching a sea turtle swim for freedom back to nature reminds us that we are all connected to the vast ocean expanse, and thus have the responsibility to protect them for our future generations.” On January 15, 2016, United States Ambassador to China and former U.S. Senator Max Baucus joined Yeh in the release of two rescued turtles named Harvard and Yale into the South China Sea. According to Yeh, the U.S. Ambassador’s charitable act was recognized as symbolic because "Sea turtles are charismatic, migratory animals that serve as natural ambassadors of the ocean; as communities and countries work together to preserve this flagship species for future generations, our shared mission to save sea turtles nurtures a peaceful platform of common grounds to improve community and international relations." Awards and honors On March 30, 2013, the Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China honored Yeh the 2012 Popular Science Award, in recognition for his significant contributions to public awareness of marine conservation. On January 9, 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature officially recognized