Showing posts with label Maldives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maldives. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Mountain high valley low,global warming


Mount Everest will be the sight of a meeting of Nepalese lawmakers on December 4th. Nepal officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal,is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia and the world's youngest republic.
It’s at the opposite extreme from the Maldives which held an underwater cabinet meeting to highlight the dangers of global warming.Now to boost awareness and not to be outdone Nepal lawmakers are headed to the 17,192ft. high base camp on Mount Everest. The summit is 29,035 ft.above sea level.
This meeting ,to be held before the Copenhagen climate conference, aims to highlight Himalayan glacier melt. With ice in the region melting at a rapid rate, lakes have been formed which could flood nearby villages. Melted ice and snow also makes mountaineering routes more hazardous.
Doctors will make a final health assessment before a helicopter takes the cabinet to base camp, at the foot of Everest. Once there they will hold a brief outdoor meeting.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Maldives under water for cabinet meeting


There may be no Maldives at all if climate change is not addressed.The UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change prediction of rising sea level of 58 centimeters(almost two feet) by 2100 would put the Maldives in underwater jeopardy.

The Republic of Maldives, in the Indian Ocean consists of a double chain of twenty six atolls. So being one of the most vulnerable places on earth the Maldives held an underwater cabinet meeting to publicize their plight.
Mohamed Nasheed, Maldives President and fellow cabinet members were holding the world's first underwater cabinet meeting in the shallow seas surrounding the Maldives Islands. They conducted the meeting in full scuba gear using hand signals and slates.
They signed an SOS message at their underwater desks to let the rest of the world know just how precarious their and other low lying countries' situations are.

Mohamed Nasheed, Maldives President:
"We are actually trying to send out a message. Let the world know what is happening. And what might, what will happen to the Maldives if climate change is not checked. This is a challenging situation. And we want to see that everyone else is also occupied as much as we are. And would like to see that people actually do something about it."

And he said it wasn't just the Maldives that the world needed to worry about.