The 5th “Save Our Planet” global warming conference will kick off today as part of the BOI Fair 2012 at Impact Arena in Nonthaburi, near Bangkok.
The event, co-organized by Asean Affairs media and the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority, aims to “address the challenges of global warming”.
Thailand’s worst flooding in decades was widely believed to be caused in part by increased rain due to climate change.
“In 2012, Thailand will face hotter temperatures and more floods, we need to get ready now. I hope the floods this year in Thailand have served as a wakeup call,” said Dr. Art-ong Jumsai na Ayudhya, a prominent Thai scientist and director of The Society for the Preservation of Water, who is the keynote speaker at the conference. “I said years ago Bangkok will be underwater in my lifetime. They called me crazy. Now I’m saying you have got to move from Bangkok within 10 years. This is pressing and urgent. You cannot live here anymore.”
Bangkok governor M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra will introduce the conference.
Other speakers include Mrs. Vasana Mututanont, Executive Director, International Affairs Bureau of the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI); General Lertrat Ratanavanich; Mr. Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, Secretary General, National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB); Dr. Seree Supratid, Managing Director of the Sirindhorn International Environmental Park Foundation; Count Markus Matushka de Greiffenclau, President of Thai Gorilla Pulp Ltd; Mr. Nopadej Karnasuta, First Senior Vice President, Kasikorn Bank; and Dr. Kriengsak Charoenwongsak, President, Institute of Future Studies For Development, Thailand.
Coconuts Bangkok will be reporting from the event.
