In efforts to draw attention to one of the world's lowest lying body of land, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, has asked his cabinet members to meet him on Oct. 17th, 20 feet under the sea. President Nasheed has asked his cabinet members to prepare for the underwater meeting by becoming Scuba certified and learning underwater signs. "The intention is to draw the attention of the world leaders to the issue of global warming and highlight how serious are the threats faced by Maldives as a result," said Aminath Shauna from president Nasheed's office. "If we can stop climate change, the lowest-lying nation on earth will be saved."
The Maldives is an archipelago off the southern coast of India. It is one of the smallest low-lying nations, averaging at only seven feet above sea-level, according to an article on the blog GlobalWarmingIsReal.com. Officials from the Maldives fear that it may be one of the first nations to disappear due to sea level rising from the effects of global warming. Needless to say, the residents of this small island are worried. The meeting will take place off the island of Girifushi, which is a 20 minute boat ride from the Maldives capital, Male.
One of the most important things on the agenda for the underwater meeting will be for the cabinet members to discuss and sign a document prepared by the little nation, calling on all countries to cut their carbon emissions. They will bring this document to the COP15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which will occur in December.
The COP15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen will take place from Dec. 7- Dec. 18th and will be held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen. According to the COP15 Climate Change Conference website, "The ambition of the Danish government is that the COP15 conference in Copenhagen will result in an ambitious global agreement including all the countries of the world."
The purpose of the conference is to gather world leaders together in hopes of renegotiating a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol Treaty, which was made in 1997. World leaders hope to put together a new treaty before the first phase of the Kyoto treaty is up in 2012.
As the conference approaches, many countries like the Maldives are taking steps toward new legislation to bring to the conference. In the United States, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has aspirations of getting a bill to the President to sign before the conference.
The bill, which aims at reducing US emissions and promoting clean energy, has not yet been passed by the Senate. Senator Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, said on Monday, "I believe we will get this bill out of my committee soon."
Hopefully small countries and large countries will unite and bring forth good ideas and legislation to the conference in hopes of forming a solid treaty to take the place of the Kyoto treaty, come 2012.
I think that the gesture made by President Nasheed is a drastic yet necessary one in that it shows how drastic the situation in the Maldives is becoming. Did his cabinet members actually follow through with his requests? If so, what was the outcome of the meeting? I ask this because it seems that a country which lies only seven feet above sea level is virtually doomed if they do eliminate their pollution by 2020 as stated. Unfortunately their fate lies not only in the hands of their own citizens to reduce emissions but also in the hands of surrounding countries, especially India whose tremendous population and subsequent pollution is going to directly negate all of the efforts by the Maldivian Government to save their island.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great example of how risk perceptions are formed and how when evaluating risk, the immediacy of an issue is extremely important. For Maldives, their existence as a nation is being directly threatened by the effects of climate change. This has given them a sense of urgency that frankly, not many nations really have.
ReplyDeleteThe acid rain problem was perceived as a direct, urgent threat to various cities in the US and as such it received immediate attention and action. There needs to be more information and a stronger more effective push to illuminate the fact that the effects of global warming and climate change know no boundaries and will directly effect everyone. If this is done more support will naturally arise.
You know, a great future research project for a book (or graduate degree) would be to see how "low lying" nations are dealing with the threat of global warming on their very existence. You'd get to visit all of these great tropical island locales in the name of research.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a pretty novel idea in order to make the effects of global warming directly hit home for the people in attendance. I wish the leaders of more industrialized nations would think of ways to hammer in the necessity of action being taken regarding climate change.
ReplyDeleteThis I think is an amazing gesture by the President of Maldives. Raising awareness in a fashion that positively draws attention to the issue is a great idea. Something so outrageous as holding a meeting underwater clearly has gained attention of people all over the world, and has once again brought the issue of climate change to the forefront. It is things like this that are going to make people become involved and demand some changes and policies to help save the future of people who are soon to be targets of this treacherous environmental issue.
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