GIRIFUSHI, Maldives — Members of the Maldives’ Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals Saturday at an underwater meeting staged to highlight the threat of global warming to the lowest-lying nation on Earth.
President Mohammed Nasheed and 13 other government officials submerged and took their seats at a table on the seafloor — 20 feet below the surface of a lagoon off Girifushi, an island usually used for military training.
As bubbles floated up from their face masks, the president, vice president, Cabinet secretary and 11 ministers signed a document calling on all countries to cut their carbon-dioxide emissions.
The meeting was a bid to draw attention to fears that rising sea levels caused by the melting of polar ice caps could swamp this Indian Ocean archipelago within a century. Its islands average 7 feet above sea level.
“What we are trying to make people realize is that the Maldives is a frontline state,” Nasheed said. “This is not merely an issue for the Maldives but for the world.”
