The Flashy President of the Maldives

The Maldives are a fabulous tourist destination in the Indian ocean and they have a new, flashy, media savvy President. Good! Great! Fantastic! And what, you ask, in the weary tone of a mother faced with yet another enthusiam for an arcane subject, has this got to do with the interdependent web of life? Glad you asked: the Maldives are approximately six feet (yes, six FEET!!!) above sea level. Sea level rises caused by global warming are going to obliterate the Maldives sometime this century if the Copenhagen agreement doesn't contain serious measures to reduce and rollback greenhouse gas emissions. The President of the Maldives will hold a cabinet meeting underwater sometime next week - all ministers clad in diving suits of course - as a means of raising global consciousness about global climate change. The President, Mohamed Nasheed, states that we are all Maldivians - the people living in the Maldives will just be some of the first casualties from global climate ... I'm very glad that he is adept at arousing media interest: I hope the deal makers at the Copenhagen conference pay attention.