Leading Ocean Explorer Heads For Brunei Shores
Danial Norjidi
Saturday, 31 March 2012
Bandar Seri Begawan – Leading ocean explorer David Gallo will be coming to Brunei to feature at Asia Inc Forum’s upcoming National Environment Conference (NEC) 2012.
David Gallo, the Director of Special Projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, will deliver a keynote presentation on the Ocean and the Future of Water at the National Environment Conference on June 20, 2012, Asia Inc Forum announced in a press release yesterday.
“For the past 25 years, David has been at the forefront of ocean exploration leading expeditions to each of the world’s oceans,” said Asia Inc.
“He recently co-led the successful search for the missing aircraft, Air France 447, and mapping mission to RMS Titanic.
“David was one of the first scientists to use a combination of robots and submarines to create detailed maps of deep-sea mountain ranges. David is passionate about exploring planet Earth and about the relationship between humanity and the sea.”
It was also mentioned in the statement that he has spoken extensively, both nationally and internationally, including at TED and TEDx.
Additionally, Gallo has participated in numerous documentaries and news programmes including CNN’s Larry King Live, Bloomberg TV, and the PBS programme ‘Need to Know.’ He was also recently featured in the History Channel television series, ‘Underwater Universe’.
Quoted in the press release is Fatin Arifin, Programmes & Research Executive at Asia Inc Forum.
“The challenge of water scarcity is real. Countries like Pakistan, Jordan and Afghanistan are already facing water supply stress and many others in the Middle East and North Africa face a big question mark on their water future. While this may not be the case for Brunei, it is very critical for us to be conscious about the value of the water,” she said.
“We are still in a very comfortable state – our daily water usage of 450 litres of water per person makes us one of the highest water users per capita in the world which is a very alarming issue,” she added. “We need to start thinking about using our water more sustainably and adopt the spirit of stewardship for water (and other resources).
Given David’s extensive experience, he will share his insightful perspective around the ocean’s role on the future of water which we hope would create the urgency to act and inspire change.”
Gallo’s session at the NEC will be followed by an open forum dialogue around how the global water crisis would affect Brunei and how critical conservation is in securing a continuous water supply.
The session will also focus on the role of businesses and industries in securing the future water supply.
“We believe that businesses play a critical role in coming up with technologies and breakthrough methods to deal with the water challenge,” Fatin Arifin explained.
The National Environment Conference is Brunei’s premier and largest conference on environmental and economic sustainability.
This year’s conference, themed ‘Conserving Our Natural Resources for a Sustainable Future’, will focus on how the private and public sectors can work together towards creating and implementing conservation practices to address resource issues and management.
This year’s programme will look at the future of water, energy and education for sustainable development; issues around consumption and wastage; and resource efficiency.
Delwin Keasberry, Programmes Manager at Asia Inc Forum, is also quoted in the press release, and he said, “Our goal is to deliver concrete change around environmental stewardship; therefore, together with our corporate partners we view this conference as the platform for dialogue, debate and discussion on the issue of environmental stewardship and resource management.”
Convened by Asia Inc Forum in collaboration with HSBC, TOTAL, Butra HeidelbergCement and Alcoa, and with the support of the Borneo Bulletin and Media Permata, the National Environment Conference will bring together over 300 stakeholders from the public and private sectors as well as academic institutions.
For more information and to register for the conference, interested parties can contact Ms Nanette Ramos or Mr Paul Lee at 2226555, email conference@asiaincforum.com or visit www.asiaincforum.com.
—Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
Source: http://www.brudirect.com/index.php/Local-News/leading-ocean-explorer-heads-for-brunei-shores.html