MALDIVES MAKES A STATEMENT
By: Hope Wilkos, Writer/Blogger Photographer: George Whylie Videographer: Maxine NolanThe Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean surrounded by sand bars and coral reefs. This is truly nature at its finest.
The President of the Maldives feels very strongly about climate change and its negative effect on his enchanted archipelago nation. It is for that reason that an underwater meeting was held with his cabinet this past Saturday wearing wet suits and scuba gear instead of suits and ties. The President has been a certified diver but each of the members of his Cabinet took a weekend to learn the skill of scuba diving in order for the meeting to take place. The meeting was led by President Mohamed Nasheed and the form of communication was by slate, hand signals and bubbles. A table was also set up to make it official. Many a fish swam by most likely wondering what was going on in their terrain.
During this underwater union of representatives, the Cabinet signed a declaration calling for global cuts in carbon emissions that will be presented before a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark in December. Nasheed was trying to send a strong and impending message to the world. It is as powerful as “if this summit fails, we are all going to die.”
In an effort to raise funds to support coral reef protection, the ministers signed their wet suits and they will be auctioned off.
Research shows that the Maldives could possibly submerge underwater if the current pace of climate change keeps raising sea levels. Most of the archipelago lies just 4.9 feet above sea level at this time.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change has forecast a rise in sea levels of at least 7.1 inches by the end of the century.
At this point, the capital of the Maldives, Male, is protected by sea walls but to shelter the entire country like that would be way too costly. The President has made it his mission to try and come up with an alternative homeland for the country’s 396,000 residents which is quite a task to undertake. To do this takes funding and it has been suggested that the nation which is known for tourism, will set aside part of its annual billion-dollar revenue for a new homeland. Other countries have been receptive to Nasheed’s idea which is promising. So far lands owned by Sri Lanka and India could provide the easiest transition because of their similar culture, cuisine and climate. Australia has also come up in the discussions.
The President has made a statement in a most unusual and original way and hopefully the U.N. Climate summit will prove to be successful and bring awareness that will continue for the many years to come.
CNN – PHOTO
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