Imagine an official presidential meeting held 20ft under the sea? Well, that’s exactly what Maldives President Mohammed Nasheed did. He held the world’s first underwater meeting at Girifushi Island, about 20 minutes from Male. The meeting which just finished was chaired by the president and was attended by the vice president and the cabinet members. Only a couple of ministers with health issues were absent from it.
They signed a declaration calling for united global action on climate change, ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in December in Copenhagen. Talk about signing, the documents were covered with waterproof plates. This underwater meeting was just one of the climate-related international activities of the environmental NGO 350.org.
After the meeting, the president will hold a press conference and a bicycle ride will be flagged from the official jetty at Male, at 1:30 p.m. local time.
Ministers spent half an hour on the sea bed and they communicated with white boards and hand gestures. They had been practicing diving for two months and for the meeting, each minister was accompanied by a diving instructor and a military minder. A few journalists sporting snorkels also attended it.
Maldives, which is the world’s lowest lying country, is the most affected by global warming. It is said that if the current situation continues, Maldives become uninhabitable by the year 2100. Also, Maldives, a country that depends on tourism and related activities such as Scuba diving and snorkelling will suffer much due to the global warming’s affect on its reefs and coral atolls.