Maldivian Ministers Forced To Hold Climate Talks Underwater

by Mike Smith · 2009-10-06 12:00:00 UTC
Topics:

Ministers in the Maldives have been forced to hold a high-level cabinet meeting and press conference underwater. The Indian Ocean nation have been increasingly frustrated by the lack of international climate change action, so all but one of the Maldivian cabinet will take to the water to highlight a substantial problem: the Maldives may be wiped out entirely by rising sea-levels, since 80% of the archipelago is less than a meter above sea-level, terrible news considering a rise of at least two-meters is almost unstoppable.

The Maldivian ministers will sign a document underwater next week demanding a new agreement to replace Kyoto is created at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The Maldives are serious about the threat; at the end of last year came the news that the nation was beginning to divert a portion of the country's tourist revenue to buy a new homeland, as insurance against the 300,000 population becoming climate change refugees.

I suggest Nepal, it's land locked, and its capital is a comforting 1336 meters above sea-level. (EDIT: This is not a serious suggestion. I am no expert in post-climate change disaster relocation).

Photo credit: ScubaBen

Mike Smith
PREVIOUS STORY:
Solar Power Goes Thin and Flexible
NEXT STORY:
Stopping the Water Grab in Nevada

COMMENTS (13)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.