Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed has announced that it will host the next cabinet meeting not in any comfortable office, but underwater on October 17 2009. The purpose of the meeting is to get attention of world leaders to take strong actions to reduce carbon emissions to prevent rising sea level. A rise in sea levels is extremely damaging to the island nation of Maldives because 80 per cent of the nation's land area (including 1200 atolls) is no more than a metre above sea level. The Maldives' islands average 7 feet (2.13 meters) above sea level. A group of 14 cabinet members will dive in scuba gear and will use whiteboards and hand signals for communication. Maldives the lowest-lying nation on Earth. The meeting will take place off the island of Girifushi and many ministers are now taking scuba diving lessons.
There is a fear that if the water levels continue to rise, the island may be completely under water in about a century. Current estimates place sea level rise at 59 cm by the year 2100. Tourism and fishing are the main source of income for the country. Over 90% of government tax revenue comes from import duties and tourism-related taxes. Maldives has a population of 350,000 people and a trust has been made to collect money in case the need to relocate it's citizens arises in future. The Maldives government has various schemes to save the islands from the sea, ranging from consolidating the population onto several main islands to artificially raising some areas. The Maldives attracts more than half a million tourists every year with its immaculate beaches, tropical reefs and laid-back atmosphere. The coral reefs, the island defense, would be in danger if the sea temperature rose by just 2C for a period as short as two weeks.
In past, Nasheed has said that the government will allocate some of the $1 billion a year that the country earns from its booming tourism industry to create a "sovereign fund" toward the purchase of new land on higher ground. The threats posed to the Maldives from climate change are well known. Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth and the oceans in recent times and the likelihood of a continued increase in temperature in future. The bulk of global emission of greenhouse gases, both current and historical, comes from the developed world. In the developing countries, per capita emission is still rather low.
Prepared by Swati Rai Hassan
In collaboration with Saching (http://www.saching.com)
