Photo credit: Maldives.com

MALDIVES – Using hand signals and whiteboards, President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives held a Cabinet meeting for the first time underwater.

Nasheed’s Cabinet presented the watery stunt just months before the UN climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009.  The Maldives, a collection of islands in the Indian Ocean less than 6 feet above sea level, are perched on the front line of climate change.  They are likely to be the first country to be entirely consumed as the sea rises due to continuing carbon emissions.  President Nasheed, at the underwater press conference, was asked what would happen if the summit fails.  “We are going to die,” he replied. Continue reading Changing how we talk about “climate refugees” →