Ministers from Maldive Islands meet under water
(NECN/MALDIVES TV) – Government ministers on the Maldive Islands sank to the depths on Saturday, trying to push a global message on global warming. They held an underwater cabinet meeting, predicting that if the pace of greenhouse gas emission and rising sea-levels is not curbed, most of their country would disappear beneath the waves of the Indian Ocean. They set up desks 20 feet down amid the coral and dodged the fishes for what had all the trappings of a formal meeting although discussions were limited to hand-signals and white boards by face masks and the rush of escaping bubbles. The underwater meeting was part of a wider campaign by the international environmental group 350.org, which has called on the world’s leaders meeting in Copenhagen in December to commit to deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Leading climatologists caution that the levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere must be brought back to the safe threshold of 350 parts per (m) million from the current 385ppm to stabilize global warming. The 350.org campaign culminates on 24 October 2009, with a global day of environmental action. The Islands’ President Mohammed Nasheed has emerged as a key, and colorful, voice on climate change amid fears that rising ocean levels could swamp this Indian Ocean archipelago within a century. The islands average just seven feet (2.1 metres) above today’s sea level. Nasheed is also a certified diver, while other ministers have had to take diving lessons in recent weeks. “None of the ministers have ever been diving before, except the defense minister, and all of them are very enthusiastic,” Zoona Naseem, president of Divers Association Maldives, said in a statement from the president’s office . On Friday, they had rehearsals off the island of Girifushi, about 20 minutes by speedboat from the capital, Male, said the president’s office. Three of the 14 ministers missed the underwater meeting because two were not given medical permission and another is abroad. Nasheed has already announced plans for a fund to buy a new homeland for his people if the 1,192 low-lying coral islands are submerged. He has promised to make the Maldives, with a population of 350-thousand the world’s first carbon-neutral nation within a decade. The underwater Cabinet signed a document calling on all countries to cut down their carbon dioxide emissions ahead of the Copenhagen conference, when countries will negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are blamed for causing global warming by trapping heat in the earth’s atmosphere. Wealthy nations want broad emissions cuts from all countries, while poorer ones say industrialized countries should carry most of the burden.
