Maldives holds world’s first underwater cabinet meeting - Thaindian News Thaindian News Maldives holds world’s first underwater cabinet meeting October 17th, 2009 - 3:03 pm ICT by ANI Tweet Male (Maldives), Oct 17 (ANI): Maldives held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting on Friday to raise awareness about the threat to the archipelago on account of global warming. The cabinet chaired by President Mohamed Nasheed held the meeting about five meters underwater aimed at pushing for stronger climate change resolutions in the upcoming Copenhagen summit, President Nasheed and his ministers dressed in scuba suits used hand signals and slates to communicate. The Maldivian cabinet also signed a document calling for global cuts in carbon emissions. President Nasheed will present this document before the landmark UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December. The Copenhagen summit is aimed at creating a consensus among the world leaders over the new agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Earlier, while addressing the UN climate change summit in September, President Nasheed said: “The countries that embrace the Green New Deal will be the winners of the 21st century.” Today’s initiative of the Maldivian Cabinet is a part of a worldwide campaign to draw global attention to the pressing issue of climate change led by 350.org. Of late, Maldives has been drawing the attention of the world on the need to take steps to halt rising sea levels. For the first time in the country’s history, however, the Maldives is facing a new threat of apocalyptic, existential proportions. Now this island nation in Indian Ocean is looming silently, invisibly and menacingly over the azure horizon due to the climate change and rising sea levels. The average height of Maldivian islands is just 1.5 metres above sea level. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned “Sea levels could rise over half a metre by the end of the 21st century, unless urgent steps are taken to halt greenhouse gas emissions.

Low-lying island states such as the Maldives are living on borrowed time.” (ANI) Maldives holds world’s first underwater cabinet meeting Maldives holds world’s first underwater cabinet meeting By ANI Saturday, October 17, 2009 MALE - Maldives held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting on Friday to raise awareness about the threat to the archipelago on account of global warming. The cabinet chaired by President Mohamed Nasheed held the meeting about five meters underwater aimed at pushing for stronger climate change resolutions in the upcoming Copenhagen summit. President Nasheed and his ministers dressed in scuba suits used hand signals and slates to communicate. The Maldivian cabinet also signed a document calling for global cuts in carbon emissions. President Nasheed will present this document before the landmark UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December. The Copenhagen summit is aimed at creating a consensus among the world leaders over the new agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Earlier, while addressing the UN climate change summit in September, President Nasheed said: “The countries that embrace the Green New Deal will be the winners of the 21st century.” Today’s initiative of the Maldivian Cabinet is a part of a worldwide campaign to draw global attention to the pressing issue of climate change led by 350.org. Of late, Maldives has been drawing the attention of the world on the need to take steps to halt rising sea levels. For the first time in the country’s history, however, the Maldives is facing a new threat of apocalyptic, existential proportions. Now this island nation in Indian Ocean is looming silently, invisibly and menacingly over the azure horizon due to the climate change and rising sea levels. The average height of Maldivian islands is just 1.5 metres above sea level. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned “Sea levels could rise over half a metre by the end of the 21st century, unless urgent steps are taken to halt greenhouse gas emissions.

Low-lying island states such as the Maldives are living on borrowed time.” (ANI) Underwater cabinet Meeting in Maldives - Believe It or Not | Unbelievable News And Photos Underwater cabinet Meeting in Maldives Posted by salman on 9:25 AM in Interesting news | 0 comments Maldives government highlights the impact of climate change by meeting underwater The government of the Maldives has held its first underwater cabinet meeting to attract international attention to the dangers of global warming. President Mohamed Nasheed, dressed in full scuba gear, conducted the 30-minute meeting at a depth of 20 feet off the coast just north of the capital Male. Most of the island nation, a tourist paradise featuring coral reefs and white sand beaches, lies less just over three feet above sea level and scientists have warned it could be uninhabitable in less than 100 years. Aminath Shauna, the event's co-ordinator, said the ministers had signed their wetsuits, which would be auctioned on the protectthemaldives.com website to raise money for coral reef protection in the atoll-chain. The government arranged a horseshoe-shaped table on the seabed for the ministers, who communicated using white boards and hand signals.

The Divers Association of Maldives said the ministers, who had trained over the past two months, felt confident about the unprecedented meeting. Of the 14-member cabinet, three ministers did not take part in the dive, as two have a medical condition while the third is currently in Europe. The Maldives, located southwest of Sri Lanka, has become a vocal campaigner in the battle to halt rising sea levels. In 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that a rise in sea levels of seven to 24 inches by 2100 would be enough to make the country virtually uninhabitable. How High Will Seas Rise? Get Ready for Seven Feet by Rob Young and Orrin Pilkey: Yale Environment 360 How High Will Seas Rise? Get Ready for Seven Feet As governments, businesses, and homeowners plan for the future, they should assume that the world’s oceans will rise by at least two meters — roughly seven feet — this century. But far too few agencies or individuals are preparing for the inevitable increase in sea level that will take place as polar ice sheets melt.

by rob young and orrin pilkey The reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are balanced and comprehensive documents summarizing the impact of global warming on the planet. But they are not without imperfections, and one of the most notable was the analysis of future sea level rise contained in the latest report, issued in 2007. Given the complexities of forecasting how much the melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets will contribute to increases in global sea level, the IPCC chose not to include these giant ice masses in their calculations, thus ignoring what is likely to be the most important source of sea level rise in the 21st century. Arguing that too little was understood about ice sheet collapse to construct a mathematical model upon which even a rough estimate could be based, the IPCC came up with sea level predictions using thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of mountain glaciers outside the poles. Its results were predictably conservative — a maximum of a two-foot rise this century — and were even a foot lower than an earlier IPCC report that factored in some melting of Greenland’s ice sheet.

The IPCC’s 2007 sea level calculations — widely recognized by the academic community as a critical flaw in the report — have caused confusion among many in the general public and the media and have created fodder for global warming skeptics. But there should be no confusion about the serious threat posed by rising sea levels, especially as evidence has mounted in the past two years of the accelerated pace of melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets . Getty Images Most climate scientists believe melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet will be one of the main drivers of sea level rise during this century. The message for the world’s leaders and decision makers is that sea level rise is real and is only going to get worse. Indeed, we make the case in our recent book, The Rising Sea , that governments and coastal managers should assume the inevitability of a seven-foot rise in sea level. This number is not a prediction. But we believe that seven feet is the most prudent, conservative long-term planning guideline for coastal cities and communities, especially for the siting of major infrastructure; a number of academic studies examining recent ice sheet dynamics have suggested that an increase of seven feet or more is not only possible, but likely.

Certainly, no one should be expecting less than a three-foot rise in sea level this century. In the 20th century, sea level rise was primarily due to thermal expansion of ocean water. Contributions of melting mountain glaciers and the large ice sheets were minor components. But most climate scientists now believe that the main drivers of sea level rise in the 21st century will be the melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (a potential of a 16-foot rise if the entire sheet melts) and the Greenland Ice Sheet (a potential rise of 20 feet if the entire ice cap melts). The nature of the melting is non-linear and is difficult to predict. Seeking to correct the IPCC’s failure to come up with a comprehensive forecast for sea level increase, a number of state panels and government The continued development of many low-lying coastal areas is foolhardy and irresponsible. committees have produced sea level rise predictions that include an examination of melting ice sheets. For example, sea level rise panels in Rhode Island and Miami-Dade County have concluded that a minimum of a three- to five-foot sea level rise should be anticipated by 2100.

A California report assumes a possible 4.6-foot rise by 2100, while the Dutch assume a 2.5-foot rise by 2050 in the design of their tidal gates. Given the growing consensus about the major sea level rise on the way in the coming century or two, the continued development of many low-lying coastal areas — including much of the U.S. east coast — is foolhardy and irresponsible. Who is at risk? Rising seas will be on the front lines of the battle against changing climate during the next century. Our great concern is that as the infrastructure of major cities in the industrialized world becomes threatened, there will be few resources left to address the dramatic impacts that will be facing the citizens of the developing world. The ramifications of a major sea level rise are massive. Agriculture will be disrupted, water supplies will be salinized, storms and flood waters will reach ever further inland, and millions of environmental refugees will be created — 15 million people live at or below three feet elevation in Bangladesh, for example. Governments, especially those in the developing world, will be disrupted, creating political instability.

The most vulnerable of all coastal environments are deltas of major rivers, including the Mekong, Irrawaddy, Niger, Ganges-Brahmaputra, Nile, and The most vulnerable of all coastal environments are deltas of major rivers, including the Mississippi. Mississippi. Here, land subsidence will combine with global sea level rise to create very high rates of what is known as “local, relative sea level rise.” The rising seas will displace the vast majority of people in these delta regions. Adding insult to injury, in many parts of Asia the rice crop will be decimated by rising sea level — a three-foot sea level rise will eliminate half of the rice production in Vietnam — causing a food crisis coincident with the mass migration of people. The Mississippi Delta is unique because it lies within a country with the financial resources to fight land loss. Nevertheless, we believe multibillion-dollar engineering and restoration efforts designed to preserve communities on the Mississippi Delta are doomed to failure, given the magnitude of relative sea level rise expected.

Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt said in 2008 that it was an “ineluctable fact” that within the lifespan of some people alive today, “the vast majority of that land will be underwater.” He also faulted federal officials for not developing migration plans for area residents and for not having the “honesty and compassion” to tell Louisiana residents the “truth”: Someday, they will have to leave the delta. The city of New Orleans can probably be protected into the next century, but only at great expense and with little guarantee that future storms like hurricane Katrina will not inundate the city again. Pacific and Indian Ocean atoll nations are already being abandoned because of the direct and indirect effects of sea level rise, such as saltwater intrusion into groundwater. In the Marshall Islands, some crops are being grown in abandoned 55-gallon oil drums because the ground is now too salty for planting. New Zealand is accepting, on a gradual basis, all of the inhabitants of the Tuvalu atolls. Inhabitants of Carteret Atoll have all moved to Papua, New Guinea. The forward-looking government of the Maldives recently held a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the ultimate fate of their small island nation.

The world’s major coastal cities will undoubtedly receive most of the attention as sea level rise threatens infrastructure. Miami tops the list of most endangered cities in the world, as measured by the value of property that would be threatened by a three-foot rise. This would flood all of Miami Beach and leave downtown Miami sitting as an island of water, disconnected from the rest of Florida. Other threatened U.S. cities include New York/Newark, New Orleans, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Tampa-St Petersburg, and San Francisco. Osaka/Kobe, Tokyo, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Nagoya are among the most threatened major cities outside of North America. Preserving coastal cities will require huge public expenditures, leaving smaller coastal resort communities to fend for themselves. Manhattan, for example, is likely to beat out Nags Head, North Carolina for federal funds, a fact that recreational beach communities must recognize when planning a response to sea level rise. Twelve percent of the world’s open ocean shorelines are fronted by barrier islands, and a three-foot sea level rise will spell doom for development on most of them — save for those completely surrounded by massive seawalls. The next century of rising sea level need not be an economic disaster.

Impacts in the United States, with a 3,500-mile long barrier island shoreline extending from Montauk Point on Long Island to the Mexican border, will be huge. The only way to preserve the barrier islands themselves will be to abandon them so that they may respond naturally to rising sea level. Yet, most coastal states continue to allow massive, irresponsible development of the low-lying coast. Ironically, low-elevation Florida is probably the least prepared of all coastal states. Hundreds of miles of high rises line the state’s shoreline, and more are built every year. The state pours subsidies into coastal development through state-run insurance and funding for coastal protection. If a portion of those funds were spent adapting to sea level rise rather than ignoring it, Florida might be ready to meet the challenge of the next century. Let’s hope the state rises to the challenge. Despite the dire facts, the next century of rising sea level need not be an economic disaster. Thoughtful planning can lead to a measured retreat from vulnerable coastal lowlands. We recommend the following: Immediately prohibit the construction of high-rise buildings and major infrastructure in areas vulnerable to future sea level rise. Buildings placed in future hazardous zones should be small and movable — or disposable.

Relocation of buildings and infrastructure should be a guiding philosophy. Instead of making major repairs on infrastructure such as bridges, water supply, and sewer and drainage systems, when major maintenance is needed, go the extra mile and place them out of reach of the sea. In our view, no new sewer and water lines should be introduced to zones that will be adversely affected by sea level rise in the next 50 years. Relocation of some beach buildings could be implemented after severe storms or with financial incentives. Stop government assistance for oceanfront rebuilding. The guarantee of recovery is perhaps the biggest obstacle to a sensible response to sea level rise. The goal in the past has always been to restore conditions to what they were before a storm or flood. In the United States, hurricanes have become urban renewal programs. The replacement houses become larger and larger and even more costly to replace again in the future. Those who invest in vulnerable coastal areas need to assume responsibility for that decision. If you stay, you pay. More from Yale e360 of Any Climate Change Plan After years of reluctance, scientists and governments are now looking to adaptation measures as critical for confronting the consequences of climate change.

And increasingly, plans are being developed to deal with rising seas, water shortages, spreading diseases, and other realities of a warming world. Get the Corps off the shore. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, more or less by default, is the government agency in charge of much of the planning and the funding for the nation’s response to sea level rise. It is an agency ill-suited to the job. Part of the problem is that the engineers’ “we can fix it” mentality is the wrong mindset for a sensible approach to responding to changing sea level. Local governments cannot be expected to take the lead. The problems created by sea level rise are international and national, not local, in scope. Local governments of coastal towns (understandably) follow the self-interests of coastal property owners and developers, so preservation of buildings and maintaining tax base is inevitably a very high priority. In addition, the resources needed to respond to sea level rise will be far beyond those available to local communities. Responding to long-term sea level rise will pose unprecedented challenges to the international community. Economic and humanitarian disasters can be avoided, but only through wise, forward-looking planning. Tough decisions will need to be made regarding the allocation of resources and response to natural disasters.

Let us hope that our political leadership can provide the bold vision and strong leadership that will be required to implement a reasoned response. #JeSuisNasheed - standing with the green 'Mandela of the Maldives' - The Ecologist #JeSuisNasheed - standing with the green 'Mandela of the Maldives' Anders Henriksen & Lykke Friis Tweet After restoring democracy to the Maldives in 2008 President Nasheed became a world leader on climate change. But four years later the old regime deposed him in a coup, and now he has been imprisoned for 13 years on bogus 'terrorism' charges. Now we must stand with Nasheed - by starving the island state of its tourism revenues. The charismatic new leader gained fame for his remarkable efforts to persuade the world to combat climate change, which threatens low-lying Maldives. But it did not take long for the old regime to move against the young democratic government. This year has been anything but tranquil in paradise.

In March, after a prolonged period of tension in the Maldives - the Indian Ocean island nation better known as a honeymoon paradise - a panel of judges found the former president, Mohamed Nasheed, guilty of terrorism and sentenced him to 13 years imprisonment . The international community has condemned Nasheed's trial as a farce. The charges against him were highly dubious, he was denied the right to legal counsel, given just a few days to prepare his defence - and two of the presiding judges even testified on behalf of the prosecution . Amnesty International labelled the trial as " a travesty of justice ". As numerous UN reports have shown , the Maldivian judiciary is highly corrupt. It is a judiciary that is loyal not to the rule of law, but to the regime that has been in charge since a coup d'état in 2012 . Nasheed is now back in the same jail where he spent years as a prisoner of conscience during the former Maldives dictatorship. Shattered dreams At the end of 2008, when democracy swept aside 30 years of dictatorship, it all looked so promising. The Maldivian people chose Nasheed as president in their first democratic elections and, for a brief moment, freedom blossomed.

During Nasheed's presidency, Maldivians could speak freely for the first time, enjoy new found political freedoms, and express themselves through art and culture. Internationally, the charismatic new leader gained fame for his remarkable efforts to persuade the world to combat climate change, which threatens low-lying Maldives. Nasheed toured the world as a political rock-star, receiving accolades from the White House to Windsor Castle. But it did not take long for the old regime to move against the young democratic government. On February 7 2012, Nasheed was forced to resign and the presidency was handed to Mohamed Waheed, a puppet of the former regime. The Maldives soon reverted to type : journalists were targeted, protesters beaten up, and opposition politicians threatened and murdered. The subsequent presidential elections 2013 were marred by widespread allegations of vote-rigging. The former dictator's half brother, Abdulla Yameen, won - despite an overwhelming expectation that Nasheed would be returned. Democracy trampled Nasheed's incarceration should be cause for concern to anyone who cares about democracy, liberty or the rights of women.

In the Maldives, the moderate, freedom-oriented version of Islam that Nasheed espoused is under threat from a regime that colludes with Islamic extremists. Unless the current trajectory is turned, the liberal forces in the countries will lose the on-going battle with fundamentalist Islam. In the last year alone, Islamic State supporters have rallied in the streets of Male , the Maldivian capital, and a growing number of Maldivians - some with experience of terrorist training camps in Pakistan - have gone to Syria to fight for Islamic State. Only Nasheed and his Maldivian Democratic Party have been willing to tackle the growing problems of Islamic radicalism. There are few statesmen of Nasheed's stature. Many foreign journalists, with good reason, refer to him as the 'Mandela of the Maldives'. In the interests of democracy and stability, the international community must take a clear stand. Targetted sanctions on Maldives' rulers Unless Nasheed is swiftly released from prison, the European Union and other nations should impose targeted sanctions against those in power. These sanctions should include travel bans and foreign asset freezes.

The sanctions should target President Yameen, his cabinet ministers, including the minister of tourism, and the corrupt judges who imprisoned Nasheed, and members of the security forces responsible for attacks on peaceful protesters. Furthermore, since the survival of the regime depends on the annual arrival of the more than a million foreign tourists, individual countries should also supplement sanctions with a tourism boycott. Just like potential tourists should think twice before spending their money on the atolls. Yameen's regime is baring its teeth. It is time for the international community to respond in kind. Anders Henriksen is Associate Professor of Public International Law at the University of Copenhagen. Lykke Friis is Prorector for Education at the University of Copenhagen. This article was originally published on The Conversation . Read the original article . What the Maldives Can Teach the Arab Spring | TIME.com Follow @TIMEWorld A Maldivian family wades in a lagoon as they catch fish in Addu, in Maldives, November 7, 2011. The heads of eight South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries are meeting in this Indian Ocean archipelago on Nov. 10 and 11.

(Photo: Eranga Jayawardena / AP) With Tunisian elections just completed , Egypt’s parliamentary elections coming up and Libya veering into a dark new period , observers of the Arab Spring are wondering what will become of these revolutions once the euphoria subsides and the struggle over democracy grows apace. There is one corner of South Asia where these questions hit particularly close to home — the Maldives — where the heads of state of every country in the regio n will meet for the SAARC summit this week. This tiny nation, a collection of 26 atolls just southwest of India’s southern tip, is best known as a canary-in-the-coalmine for climate change. The media savvy president, Mohamed Nasheed, famously held a cabinet meeting underwater in 2009 to publicize the threat posed by global warming to vulnerable countries like his. The Maldives might be just as interesting, though, as a different kind of bellwether —for other Muslim-majority countries emerging from years of dictatorship.

In October 2008, voters in this 100% Sunni Muslim nation decisively threw out Maumoon Gayoom , the man who had ruled the Maldives for 30 years, making him Asia’s longest-serving ruler. The 41-year-old Nasheed, a human rights activist and longtime critic of the regime, became president, riding a euphoric wave of idealism. As one of his allies told my colleague Ishaan Tharoor, “We are not interested in revenge. Now is the time to look to our future.” So what’s happened to the Maldives since then? On a visit there earlier this year, I found a country that was roiled with protests over rising prices and joblessness, where many people were deeply uneasy about the new prominence enjoyed by Islamists and where the former dictator’s presence still loomed large. (READ: The Maldives’ struggle to stay afloat and TIME’s interview with President Nasheed. ) Despite those challenges, its new democracy is firmly in place. Every country will take its own path, but there are some useful lessons: 1. Don’t be afraid of the Islamists.

In the Maldives, the conservative Islamist Adhaalath Party was until recently a key political ally of Nasheed’s government. The partnership, while it lasted, wasn’t easy. To keep the Islamists happy, for example, Nasheed did little to change the country’s extremely punitive apostasy laws. In an interview with me in Malé, Ahmed Shaheed, a top foreign policy official in Nasheed’s government, explained the rationale for working with the Islamists — their grassroots appeal: That’s where the mullahs excel. On a daily basis they talk to them, five daily prayers, other events, in constant touch with them and as Muslim people who want to know about Islam, about rituals and so on so there is a lot of contact between the mullahs and these lot. It turned out that their popular support in local elections wasn’t as strong as anticipated. But the Islamists aren’t just a political force; they’ve also been pushing for the establishment of religious schools, and for expanding the extensive links between madrassas in Pakistan and students from the Maldives.

For all those reasons, Nasheed wanted to keep the Islamists involved in the political process, rather than allowing them to develop into a separate, unaccountable power center. At least for now, the strategy seems to be working. I spoke to Ibrahim Fauzee, head of the extremely conservative Islamic Foundation of the Maldives and a former inmate of Guantanamo Bay (he was picked up in Pakistan in 2002 and repatriated without charges after three years). He does not, however, challenge the legitimacy of Nasheed’s government. He told me: Now we have much more freedom, because we are opening our eyes to the world, following democracy. The nation is going to accept democracy. It’s encouraging us to promote religious activities. We can hold programs. Before, it’s not easy to arrange events in open areas. Those events and programs sometimes make liberal Maldivians shudder. The radical preacher Zakir Naik ( said to have inspired the accused would-be American militant Najibullah Zazi ) spoke to a crowd of thousands in Malé last year, at the invitation of the Islamic Foundation. The real test will come now, with the Adhaalath Party in the opposition. 2. Do worry about the economy.

During the first week of May, the capital city of Malé went through a week of nightly protests, in which young people filled the narrow streets to express their anger over the government’s decision to partially float the rufiyaa (the local currency), a move that led to a sudden drop in its value and a spike in prices. Many in the government suspected that the protests were organized by opposition parties; whether that’s true of not, it was a wake-up call for the government. “It was ironic because in the Middle East we saw people wanting to bring down dictators, and here it is the other way round,” press secretary Mohamed Zuhair told me. “We have already brought down the dictator. Probably what happens here might play out in the Middle East.” The lesson for the Arab Spring? The economic protests that started it all may yet reappear. 3. Be ready for ghosts. After he was ousted from power, former president Gayoom wasn’t killed or exiled; he still lives in the capital, Malé, and is still a leader of the Progressive Party of the Maldives. He may never be elected president again, but he still wields an enormous amount of influence — most Maldivians have never known any other leader.

Even officials in the government sometimes find it hard to hide their animosity toward the man whom they blame for decades of human rights abuses. The persistence of Gayoom’s influence turned into a violent clash on Oct. 20 at a protest outside his house between supporters of Gayoom and Nasheed’s party, the MDP. As Minivan News reported : Earlier in the day, the MDP national council conducted an emergency meeting and approved a resolution to launch a protest against the judiciary, claiming judges were unduly influenced by the former President [Gayoom] and his half-brother MP Abdulla Yameen. When a dictator rules for 30 years, his support networks don’t dry up overnight. 4. Expect pragmatic foreign policy. During Gayoom’s rule, foreign policy was largely put to the service of keeping him in power. In 1988, when faced with a coup d’etat, Gayoom invited the Indian military in to help him. India obligingly sent in paratroopers and put down the rebellion within a matter of hours, further strengthening the Gayoom regime’s ties with India. Of course, that didn’t stop him from also courting Pakistan — where thousands of Maldivians students have studied in madrassas.

Since the new government came to office, those two relationships are still by far the most important. India is the acknowledged regional superpower, although its economic support is now much more important than its military support. And until the Maldives expands and improves its schools, devout Maldivian families will continue to send their children to Pakistani madrassas in the absence of any better option. 5. Create strong institutions, not just governments. Perhaps the most important lesson — one that I heard over and over in my conversations with Maldivians — is that after dramatic political change, a country has to turn its attention to civil society. The nature of any authoritarian regime is that it extends itself into every institution — from schools to the media to the police and judiciary. The hard work of the post-revolution revolutionaries is taking those institutions back and making them truly independent. One of the most inspiring people I met was Aminath Arif, founder of the Salaam School and a longtime campaigner for education and women’s rights. She was full of creative ideas to improve the skills and employability of young people in the Maldives so the all-important tourism industry wouldn’t need to bring in so many guest workers.

She even supported the radical idea of relocating most of the country’s populations to the two largest islands, to make it more feasible for the government to build bigger, better primary schools. Sadly, she died in July after suffering burns in an accident. Her work, and that of the Maldives’ new democracy, continues. Jyoti Thottam is TIME’s South Asia Bureau Chief, based in New Delhi. Find her on Twitter at @jyotithottam. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIMEWorld . Subscribe Popular Among Subscribers Maldives Ban Fishing of Sharks - The New York Times The New York Times Asia Pacific |Maldives Ban Fishing of Sharks Search Continue reading the main story PARIS — The Maldives will make its territorial waters into a shark sanctuary, a government official said Tuesday, lending momentum to efforts to protect the fish at a United Nations endangered species conference that begins this week. “We’ve decided to go ahead with a shark fishing ban,” Ibrahim Didi, the fisheries and agriculture minister of the Maldives, said by telephone from Male, the capital. “Beginning July 1 there will be a total ban on exports.” Maldives becomes the second nation to announce blanket protection for its sharks.

Palau, a tiny Micronesian state, in September announced a ban on shark fishing. Like the Maldives, Palau is regarded as one of the world’s top scuba-diving destinations. The Maldives exclusive economic zone covers about 90,000 square kilometers, or 35,000 square miles, roughly equivalent to the land area of Portugal. In one sense, the bans represent pure economic logic. Researchers from James Cook University in Australia last year estimated that a single gray reef shark was worth $3,300 a year to the Maldivian tourism industry, compared with the one-time value of $32 that a fisherman would get from the same shark. They found a similar dynamic with regard to sharks on the Great Barrier Reef. Advertisement Continue reading the main story But the bigger issue is a rapid decline in global shark stocks that has alarmed scientists. Up to 30 percent of shark species is threatened with extinction, said Matt Rand, director of global shark conservation at the Pew Environment Group.

“If we don’t leave enough in the water, they won’t recover.” On Saturday, member nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora begin meeting in Doha, Qatar, where they will consider giving protected status to eight species of sharks, including the scalloped hammerhead and oceanic whitetip, which inhabit Maldivian waters. The measures call for restrictions, but not a ban, on international trade. In the United States, the Shark Conservation Act, which would sharply curtail the practice of “finning” — cutting off sharks’ fins and throwing the rest of the animal back into the sea — has passed the House of Representatives and is awaiting approval in the Senate. Mr. Rand said more than 70 million of the fish were killed each year just to support the sharkfin trade. The vast majority of those are sold in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, where they are used in sharkfin soup. Fins can fetch as much as $120 per kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, in Hong Kong. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to.

Sign Up Privacy Policy “Sharks don’t have the ability to rebound,” he said. “They grow slowly and they’re late to mature.” Some sharks do not reach maturity until they are more than 10 years old and even then have only a few pups, so the stock cannot reproduce rapidly enough to make up for overfishing. The value of sharks to the Maldives “is clearly in tourism and diving,” Mr. Rand said. “Any diver will tell you that you get a rush of exhilaration when you see a shark, but you’re not scared. O.K., maybe sometimes you’re scared.” Mr. Didi, the Maldivian fisheries minister, said his government began planning for a ban last year, but objections from fishermen delayed the decision. Now, he said, “they understand that it isn’t a sustainable fishery.” The government will provide the fishermen with financial support and retraining, Mr. Didi said. Shark meat is not a part of the traditional Maldivian diet, he said, and all of the fish were being caught for their fins, which were exported.

But the value of the trade had shrunk by more than 80 percent over the last 12 years, to just $230,000, as the sharks became scarcer. The Maldives’ shark-fishing ban could also give impetus to a thorny discussion in London over an initiative to create the world’s largest marine reserve in British territorial waters around the Chagos islands, the Indian Ocean archipelago where the Diego Garcia military base is located. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The Maldives has become particularly sensitive to environmental issues amid concern over global warming. In October, ministers donned scuba gear for the first cabinet meeting ever held underwater, to publicize the country’s vulnerability to rising seas. The highest natural point in the Maldives is just 2.4 meters, or less than eight feet, above sea level. A version of this article appears in print on March 10, 2010, in The International Herald Tribune. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Energy and Global Warming News for December 1: Chu says U.S. falling behind in clean-energy race; Europeans could save planet for $3 a day Moving news forward.

Dec 1, 2009 Energy and Global Warming News for December 1: Chu says U.S. falling behind in clean-energy race; Europeans could save planet for $3 a day Senator Lindsey Graham, (R) South Carolina: “We believe the Savannah River Site, Georgia, South Carolina can lead the country in this effort to become energy independent.” … The U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu was on hand to break down the specifics on one of the largest biomass plants in the nation…. Sen. Graham: “I want it to be said about SC when it comes to energy independence in the green economy that we led the nation. That the innovation was better because it existed in South Carolina.” Chu made several stops in the Palmetto State yesterday U.S. falling behind in clean-energy race: Chu The United States is falling behind in the race for clean, renewable energy and risks losing its prominence in high-tech manufacturing, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said on Monday. “America has the opportunity to lead the world in a new industrial revolution,” Chu told business leaders, political leaders and engineers at a Clemson University symposium. But, he said, “The world is passing us by.

We are falling behind in the clean energy race. … China is spending $9 billion a month on clean energy … China has now passed the United States and Europe in high-tech manufacturing. There is no reason the United States should cede high-tech manufacturing to anyone.” Last week the U.S. Energy Department awarded a $45 million grant to Clemson’s Restoration Institute to test the drive trains for the next generation of large-scale wind turbines. The grant, plus $53 million in matching funds from public and private sources, will be used to build and operate a large-scale wind turbine drive train testing facility at a former Navy base in Charleston, South Carolina. The facility will perform highly-accelerated testing of advanced drive train systems for wind turbines in the 5 megawatt to 15 megawatt range, the latter of which could power 6,000 homes. “This is going to be a very competitive business and we want to help the United States get a leadership position in wind generation technology,” Chu said. “This is high-tech manufacturing.

This means quality jobs for Americans, this means better exports and balance of trade, it means better consumption at home, it further drives down the price of wind, it betters our exports, it creates jobs in America. We see all good things.” Chu said the nation must decrease its dependence on foreign oil and mitigate against global warming by decreasing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Europeans could save planet for $3 a day: study Europeans could help cut climate warming emissions to much safer levels for just 2 euros ($3) each per day, but they would also have to cut back on driving and meat eating, a report said Tuesday. Other long-term changes would include using the train instead of flying for journeys of under 1,000 km, said the report by the Stockholm Environment Institute, commissioned by Friends of the Earth Europe (FOEE). The study targets a European cut in climate-warming emissions such as carbon dioxide to 40 percent below 1990 levels over the next decade. “It’s not just about investment, it’s also about lifestyle changes,” said FOEE campaigner Sonja Meister.

“This report shows one pathway that would see air travel in the EU cut by 10 percent by 2020 and travel in private cars by 4 percent.” “Travel by rail would rise by 9 percent, and meat consumption would be reduced by about 60 percent,” she added. The European Union has pledged to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed for climate change, to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. It also says it will cut by nearly a third if other rich nations agree to follow suit when they meet for global climate talks in Copenhagen in December. But many scientists say much deeper cuts are needed from rich nations to keep the climate temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius. Poorer countries preparing for Copenhagen say industrialized nations caused the climate problem in the first place and should cut emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels. That could be achieved in Europe for a cost of 2 trillion euros, or around 2 percent of cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) over the next decade, said the report.

“Put another way, this cost would be the equivalent of temporarily holding GDP constant for about one year before resuming normal growth,” it added. The cost equates to about 2 euros per European per day, but that does not take account of the positive impact of job creation and reduced spending on hydrocarbon imports. True to FOEE’s politics, the assessment excludes the use of nuclear energy or carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology that would allow European power suppliers to keep on burning coal. It also rules out most carbon offsetting. Instead, it assumes Europeans will accept higher taxes and make major lifestyle changes — something politicians have not yet dared demand. China and U.S. agree — more electric cars? As the two largest carbon polluters, China and the US have yet to agree on much before the international conference on global warming in Copenhagen next week. But they are cooperating on at least one thing — rapid acceleration in the production of electric and hybrid vehicles. During his trip to the climate-change conference, President Obama can point to his recent pact with Beijing to jointly share information on standards, research, and demonstration of such vehicles. That should help make up for his dashed hopes that Congress would have set targets for cutting carbon emissions by now. Mr.

Obama is banking heavily on electric and hybrid cars to reshape the world’s energy future. Earlier this year, he promised to “put one million plug-in hybrid vehicles on America’s roads by 2015.” But besides the new cooperation with China and the billions in subsidies to bolster this small industry, his main policy tool is to push automakers to produce fleets that run with an average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. The industry, sensing the heat, is also counting on electrics and hybrids as part of their future. Last summer two automakers conducted a brief bragging battle over whose triple-digit mileage figure for its future electric car is higher. General Motors put its long-ballyhooed Volt at 230 miles per gallon. Nissan countered that its new Leaf would get 367 m.p.g. Both are expected in showrooms in 2010. But all the m.p.g. talk at this stage is a little silly. No standard exists for measuring the “gas mileage” of plug-in vehicles that run on electricity. The Volt, for example, actually has two propulsion systems, an electric motor powered by rechargeable batteries and a gasoline engine.

It begins using gasoline after about 40 miles of driving on batteries alone. How much gasoline a driver would use could vary widely, depending on how many trips over 40 miles in distance a driver took. Nissan’s Leaf won’t use gasoline at all, so in terms of gasoline used, the mileage will be, well, infinite. Both cars will recharge their batteries from the electric grid, introducing more complications. The cost of electricity varies by locale and sometimes by the time of day. It could be generated by a coal-fired power plant (bad for planet-heating carbon emissions) or renewable wind or solar energy. The Environmental Protection Agency is far from ready to apply mileage figures to either vehicle. The EPA will need a new system for measuring fuel economy, perhaps using two figures, one estimate for gasoline used per mile and the other for electricity per mile. Or perhaps it will assign a single number based on the estimated total cost of fuel per mile driven. Either new car is likely to be several times more efficient than the current m.p.g. king of the road, the Toyota Prius. It gets a mere 50 m.p.g. and can’t be plugged into the electric grid. Will the Volt and Leaf even be affordable?

Speculation puts the Volt at $40,000 to $45,000 and the Leaf at $25,000 to $40,000, though a $7,500 government rebate could reduce those figures considerably. A 2010 Toyota Prius costs as little as $22,000. While Toyota remains leery of all-electric cars, other Japanese automakers are committed to bringing them to market. Malls in Japan will be putting in charging stations. Meanwhile, China’s top automakers are conducting joint R&D to turn out state-of-the-art electric vehicles. India’s Reva carmaker wants in the game too. At the recent auto show, Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn said he expects electric cars to grab 10 percent of the worldwide market for all vehicles by 2020. The electric car has been jolted back to life and could become the kind of technological solution to climate change that many nations can agree on. Even if Copenhagen fails to set global goals on overall carbon reduction, at least such a concrete step in reducing vehicle pollution is already being taken. Coal concerns lead U.S.

climate bill challenges For anyone trying to understand why the United States is having such a hard time joining an international effort to combat global warming, a short drive west from Washington to one of the smaller states in the country might explain a lot. Even though it has a population of only 1.8 million people in a country of 308 million, West Virginia is not to be ignored as Congress struggles over ways to reduce carbon emissions blamed for international climate change problems. Coal is buried in nearly every nook of its 24,231 square miles (62,758 square km) and any legislation to reduce the role of dirty energy sources such as coal could hit the state hard. The politics surrounding coal may be among the thorniest in the U.S. effort to craft climate change legislation, and the hurdles show why President Barack Obama will need to keep one eye on Charleston, the West Virginia capital, even as he travels to Copenhagen for international climate negotiations this month. West Virginia’s two U.S. senators, like several of their fellow Democrats from other major coal states, say they want to do something to ease carbon pollution — with conditions.

“We have leverage and bargaining position for a good reason because our people essentially are going to pay this price,” Senator John Rockefeller recently told reporters. And so a less ambitious timetable for reducing U.S. carbon emissions than currently being debated and more government concentration on developing “clean coal” technologies are essential for the support of Rockefeller and other senators. “I know my coal miners,” Rockefeller said, adding that workers in West Virginia view “cap-and-trade to be a really bad word.” As a result, Rockefeller wants Congress to allow more time to educate voters about how the complicated regime would work allowing companies to trade pollution permits with each other. Throughout the Midwest and South of the United States, coal and coal-fired power plants are central to local energy production and to jobs.

Paul Sracic, chairman of the political science department at Youngstown State University in Ohio, a coal state that also has suffered significant manufacturing job losses in recent decades, said, “While legislation aimed at combating global — emphasize global — warming might garner support in theory, it quickly loses its popularity if it is thought to cost local — emphasize local — jobs.” EU Leaders Want Details on China Emissions Plan European leaders called on China to provide details on how it plans to curb its greenhouse gas emissions, saying Tuesday that Beijing’s status as the world’s largest polluter gives it a special responsibility to combat global warming. India, meanwhile, is under growing pressure to offer up a plan of any kind with less than week to go before 192 nations gather in Copenhagen to try to craft an international agreement for controlling emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases believed responsible for global warming. Scientists warn of potentially catastrophic climate change if average global temperatures rise more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) from preindustrial levels, leading to rising seas and climate shifts that would produce droughts, floods and other severe disruptions.

To prevent that, greenhouse gas emissions should peak within the next few years and then rapidly decline by mid-century, according to the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Announcements from both China and the U.S. in the past week add significant weight toward achieving a global agreement — even though the Dec. 7–18 Copenhagen conference is unlikely to produce a binding deal as hoped. China promised last week to nearly halve the ratio of pollution to GDP over the next decade — a major voluntary step that came a day after President Barack Obama promised the U.S. would lay out plans at this month’s global warming conference in Copenhagen to substantially cut its own greenhouse gas emissions. China’s plan does not commit it to an overall reduction in emissions, which will continue to increase, though at a slower rate.

Following a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said the Europeans wanted to analyze the figures and find out precisely what measures Beijing plans to put into place and ‘’how it will differ from their business as usual pathway in regards to emissions.’’ Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, credited China with pursuing renewable energy and nuclear power as a substitute for coal-burning plants that spew carbon dioxide. However, China’s status as a major source of increase in global emissions requires Beijing to do more, Reinfeldt said, citing a continuing rise in global temperatures. New Australian opposition leader vows to block climate plan Does this sound familiar? A head of state’s push for a climate change bill hits a big roadblock, preventing action before this month’s international climate change summit in Copenhagen. That has been the case for President Obama. Democratic cap-and-trade legislation is moving slowly in the Senate and several committees have yet to act. And today, Australia’s opposition Liberal Party elected climate change skeptic Tony Abbott, who quickly vowed to block Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading plan in that country’s Senate.

The Financial Times, reporting from Australia, said Abbott’s win “all but kills plans by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to have an emissions trading scheme passed into law ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit.” The Wall Street Journal reports that the Rudd government’s climate plan is probably stalled until February, and maybe longer. Rudd, of the Labor Party, met with Obama at the White House yesterday and climate change was on the agenda. He also met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. “When it comes to climate change, the clock’s ticking for us all when it comes to Copenhagen. And we’re working closely with our American friends to secure the best possible outcome for an important deal for the planet, for our economies, for jobs, for the environment,” Rudd said before their meeting. Constellation buys Maryland wind project Power company Constellation Energy said Monday that it will buy and develop a $140 million wind project in Maryland from Clipper Windpower, one of several clean energy initiatives that Constellation is planning for the state. The 70-megawatt Criterion wind project in Garrett County will generate enough electricity to power 23,000 households a year. Commercial operation at the plant is expected next fall.

The $140 million includes 28 of Clipper’s 2.5 megawatt Liberty wind turbines and project costs. The project has a 20-year agreement with Old Dominion Electric Cooperative to sell power and renewable energy credits produced by the wind facility. Old Dominion is a not-for-profit power provider serving public electric cooperatives in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. Nepal Cabinet to Meet at Everest Over Climate Change Nepal’s Cabinet will meet at the Mount Everest base camp this week to draw attention to the threat of climate change from melting glaciers and government efforts to protect the Himalayan environment. The Everest meeting at Kalapatthar, 5,240 meters (17,192 feet) above sea level, follows one in October when the Maldives held an underwater Cabinet meeting to highlight the risk the low-lying island-nation faces of being submerged by rising seas. Twenty-six ministers and aides will fly to Lukla in eastern Nepal on Dec. 3, then travel by helicopter to Kalapatthar for the meeting the next day, Nepalnews.com reported. Nepal, between China and India, is home to Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, and eight more of the world’s 14 highest peaks.

Global warming mainly caused by greenhouse-gas emissions is melting glaciers from Switzerland to the Himalayas, threatening water and food security for 1.6 billion people in South Asia, according to an Asian Development Bank study. Half of the Alps’ glacial terrain has vanished since the 1850s, according to the World Glacier Monitoring Service in Zurich. The Himalayas are the source of India’s Ganges River; the Yangtze, China’s longest; Nepal’s main river, the Karnali; and Pakistan’s longest, the Indus. India and China possess more than 40 percent of Earth’s population and rely on rivers for drinking water and irrigation. Nepal and the Maldives have felt compelled to use their endangered geography ahead of United Nations-sponsored climate talks that begin Dec. 7 in Copenhagen to publicize the threat that heat-trapping pollution causes developing countries. Gibbs: Despite research dispute, ‘climate change is happening’ The White House on Monday made exceptionally clear that it wants nothing to do with the furor over documents that global warming skeptics say prove the phenomenon is not a threat.

Despite the incident, which rocked international headlines last week, climate science is sound, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stressed this afternoon, and the White House nonetheless believes “climate change is happening.” “I don’t think that’s anything that is, quite frankly, among most people, in dispute anymore,” he said during Monday’s press briefing. Climate change skeptics have asserted over the past week that the publication of more than 1,000 private e-mails and documents once housed in the University of East Anglia’s computer system refutes most modern global warming evidence. The documents, unearthed by a blogger who hacked into Climate Research Unit’s (CRU) private system, have since touched off an international debate over the veracity of those scientists’ works. But the dispute is proving especially troublesome for the Obama administration as it prepares to head to Copenhagen next week for a climate change summit — a forum the president will attend. Not only has the White House faced criticism from the left for offering too few concessions ahead of the meet, it is now fielding dissatisfaction from the right for participating in a summit sponsored in part by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — one of the research organs touched by the CRU spat.

“I think there’s no real scientific basis for the dispute of this,” responded Gibbs to questions about those scientists’ credibility. Nevertheless, congressional Republicans this week hope to ramp up their criticism of both global warming policy and the science that informs it. Most vocal seems to be Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Inhofe demanded on Friday a hearing into the IPCC’s research to determine whether it “cooked the science to make this thing look as if the science was settled, when all the time of course we knew it was not.” “[T]his thing is serious, you think about the literally millions of dollars that have been thrown away on some of this stuff that they came out with,” he told reporters, noting it was “interesting” the e-mails surfaced before the Copenhagen summit. Maldives Archives - Gadling Gadling Sep 26, 2013 Timo Newto-Syms, Flickr You may have heard of the Maldives . It’s a tropical travel paradise, with white sandy beaches and turquoise waters. An island nation in the Indian Ocean, it is composed of 26 atolls that are home to some of the world’s best diving .

The Maldives is a place that’s beautiful, exotic and remote. It’s also a place that might not be around for much longer. This week marks the release of the new report by the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, which by Friday should give a prediction of how much, and when, sea levels will rise. For the island nation of the Maldives that isn’t just a warning, it’s an expiration date.Mohamed Nasheed, the former freely elected president who was expected to be re-elected until accusations of poll fraud suspended the vote , has long been a voice for the threats of climate change to his nation (he’s the guy that held an underwater cabinet meeting ), warning that if the world stands by and does nothing, the Maldives will exist no more. Tourism is one of the Maldives’ main industries, and many of the small islands are set up as luxury resort destinations. While today you can calmly walk, dipping your toes in the calm waters, the risk that these islands will become submerged is on a not so distant horizon. The effects of climate change are already being felt here, and in an economy that depends on tourism, storms and freak weather can have a significant impact.

From erosion to coral reef degradation, the islands are changing, and in big ways. What’s the future of the Maldives? Only time will tell, but for now, the future does not look bright. by Reena Ganga on Jan 11, 2013 If you’ve been thinking about where you might want to spend your vacation this year, don’t make any plans until you’ve read this list. There are a lot of places and sights in the world that might not be around very much longer. Climate change, rising sea levels, human destruction and even shoddy artistry are to blame for the deterioration of some of the world’s treasures. Want to see them before they’re gone? Here are five places to see in 2013 before they disappear. 1. Jungfrau, Switzerland (above) You’ve probably heard about the receding ice-cap on Tanzania ‘s Mount Kilimanjaro , which grows smaller and smaller with each passing year. But climate change is affecting glaciers worldwide, including the Aletsch Glacier, which is the largest in the Swiss Alps.

Over a period of 55 years, the glacier has shrunk in volume by 60 percent and continues to retreat at a pace of about 3 percent a year. Scientists believe there’s nothing they can do to stop this UNESCO World Heritage Site from melting away.If you want to visit the region before it changes forever, consider going to Jungfrau, which is one of the main summits in the area. Jungfrau is not just for mountain climbers – you can access parts of the mountain by train and visit the observatory, the Ice Palace (a museum made of ice that’s filled with ice sculptures) as well as other attractions. If you go, you might want to download this iphone app that teaches you about the effects of climate change in the area. The app was designed by scientists at the University of Bern and includes maps and walking trails designed to improve your understanding of the melting glaciers. 2. “The Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci “The Last Supper,” as you probably know, is a famous mural by artist Leonardo Da Vinci, painted during the 15th century. However, what you might not realize is that the artwork is slowly deteriorating and flaking away.

The mural, which is located on a church wall in Milan, Italy, began to fall apart less than 20 years after Da Vinci painted it. Part of the problem was the untested application method Da Vinci used to create his mural, but attempts to restore the artwork over the years have also contributed to the damage. If you want to see “The Last Supper,” you’ll have to book well ahead (at least four weeks in advance is a good bet), as access to the mural is restricted to a small number of visitors at a time. After passing through a humidity-controlled environment, you’ll get 15 minutes to enjoy the masterpiece before being ushered out. You can reserve your ticket through this website . 3. The Maldives The Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean that is slowly sinking into the sea. The country – which is made up of almost 1200 islands and atolls – is the lowest country in the world, with the islands averaging a height of just 4’11” above sea level. As climate change leads to rising sea levels, it threatens to swamp the islands. Water has already eroded 14 of the islands badly enough that they’ve had to be abandoned.

Local authorities are so worried they’re even buying up land in neighboring countries so they’ll have somewhere to relocate their 300,000 citizens. Tourism is the main source of income in the Maldives and a lot of that money is going towards the country’s relocation funds. So if you visit the Maldives, you could actually play a part in helping the inhabitants find a new home after theirs slips beneath the sea. 4. Madagascar Madagascar is an island nation off the east coast of Africa famed for its biodiversity. Because the country split off from India more than 88 million years ago, the plants and wildlife on the island have been able to continue developing without interference. As a result, more than 80 percent of the flora and fauna is unique to the country and can’t be found anywhere else on the planet. Unfortunately, the environment is under threat because of deforestation. Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world and many of its people are forced to slash and burn the forests in order to plant crops for food. A lot of the timber on the island is also highly valued and can sell for more than $2000 a ton, causing people to log even where it’s illegal.

More than 80 percent of the country’s forests have already been destroyed and many species of wildlife have disappeared. 5. Polar bears near the Arctic Polar bears were the first animals to end up on the endangered species list because of global warming. These animals can only live in areas where the ocean freezes, because they hunt the seals that live under the sheets of ice. Problem is, as global temperatures rise, arctic ice only stays frozen for short periods – which means polar bears don’t get enough time to hunt their prey. The situation gets worse and worse each year and a lot of bears die trying to swim long distances between the ice. Some even die as a result of cannibalism, since desperately hungry adult bears will eat the cubs. There are only about 20,000-25,000 polar bears left in the wild. If you want to see them, your best bet is in Canada, which is home to about 65 percent of the world’s polar bear population . by Laurel Miller on Dec 26, 2012 New Year’s Eve is fast approaching, so what better time to provide a list of hangover cures from around the world?

Our friends at Alice Marshall Public Relations in New York asked some of their clients about local versions of hair-of-the-dog. Unsurprisingly, the preferred remedies all have a distinctly regional flavor. Here’s to a headache-and-nausea-free January 1! St. Barts On this notorious party island, the secret is to stay awake. Pull an all-nighter, and when “the bakery” in St. Jean opens, score a croissant straight out of the oven. Devour it, cross the street and jump into the ocean. Thailand Although I’ve found coconut water to be the best hangover helper in existence, Thailand has a more original cure. According to the Anantara Golden Triangle resort, Black Ivory Coffee (aka elephant dung coffee, which I believe puts kopi luwak to shame) is what does the trick. Elephants feed on coffee beans, which then ferment in their gastrointestinal tract. The beans are then plucked out by the mahouts (elephant keepers) and their wives, roasted, and sold for approximately $1,100 per kilogram. But wait, there’s more! Eight percent of all sales are donated to the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation.

No reason is given for why this cure supposedly helps, but I’m thinking this folklore is full of … you know. Maldives As if being in the glorious Maldives weren’t cure enough, Naladhu luxury resort has my kind of cure in mind (that’s me, right, killing a hangover in Mexico). They provide queasy guests with fresh coconut water from their own groves. All those electrolytes along with potassium stop hangovers in their tracks. Cape Town According to chef Reuben Riffel of One&Only Cape Town, a swank urban resort, you need to drink yourself better. His solution is an alcohol-free tonic consisting of one cup of chilled Rooibos tea (an indigenous plant), a half-cup ginger ale, and 1 ounce of lemongrass simple syrup. Top with soda water, and a dash of Angostura bitters. Santa Fe After many visits to Santa Fe , I’ll swear by the local’s cure for a long night. A green chile cheeseburger is the prescription, although I’d add that a bowl of great posole, green chile, or a breakfast burrito also work wonders.

Nantucket Nantucket Island Resorts recommends a brisk swim in Nantucket Sound, followed by a visit to Brant Point Grill for a Lobster Bloody Mary and lobster kabobs. Now we’re talking. Have a safe, happy, hangover-free New Year’s! [Photo credits: elephant, Flickr user rubund ; coconut, Laurel Miller] Intrigued by Black Ivory Coffee? Watch this video! by Libby Zay on Dec 6, 2012 With the help of filmmaker Roman Coppola, son of director Francis Ford Coppola, W Hotels and Intel recently held a travel-inspired screenplay competition. Out of more than 1,000 online entries, four scripts were chosen by Coppola, who then used his production company, The Directors Bureau, to match the winning scripts with emerging directors and actors. The result are the short films below, each of which takes place at a W Hotel around the world: in Doha, Qatar; Mexico City, Mexico; Washington, DC; and the Maldives. The only other stipulation for screenwriters was that the films had to feature an Intel Ultrabook – kind of like the secret ingredient in an Iron Chef competition.

The results are quirky, touching, and sometimes eerie, but most of all great ways to inspire travel and help emerging talent get their feet off the ground. Modern/Love: Two 20-somethings take the next step in their long-distance cyber romance, meeting in person for the first time during an exotic vacation in Doha, Qatar . Will their tech-enabled feelings hold true in real life? Screenplay by Amy Jacobowitz Directed by Lee Toland Krieger Featuring Robert Schwartzman and Naomi Scott ¡El Tonto!: A socially challenged vacationer in Mexico City, Mexico , strikes up an unlikely friendship with one of the country’s best-known luchadores. Screenplay by Ben Sayeg Directed by Lake Bell Featuring Kyle Mooney and Kyle Mooney Eugene: A traveler in Washington, DC , gets a mysterious gift: an Ultrabook that grants all his wishes. How will he wield his unexpected powers? Screenplay by Adam Blampied “ Panettone Reef ” from Jon Kreider on Vimeo . Swim through the Panettone Reef in Maldives with schooling bannerfish in this video.

These bannerfish are native to areas near Africa and although they are strikingly similar to the Moorish idols, the bannerfish and Moorish idols are only distantly related. The Panettone Reef in Ari Atoll is a popular spot for diving. Not only is Maldives the smallest Asian country in both land area and population, but Maldives is also the world’s lowest country with an average above-ground level just short of 5 feet. With widespread worry over the future of Maldives and whether or not the islands will soon be covered completely with water, this country is on my “URGENT: Travel To Soon” list.

Question: Which island nation held the world's first underwater cabinet meeting to publicize global warming?
Answer: The Maldives