Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Government ministers in the Maldives are going through some special preparations for their upcoming Cabinet meeting, practicing hand signals and learning to breathe properly.

That's because President Mohammed Nasheed is holding the meeting underwater, about 20 feet deep on the floor of the Indian Ocean. Cabinet members who do not already know how to scuba dive are taking lessons.

The meeting is intended to highlight the threat global warming poses to the nearly 1,200 island archipelago. It's the low-lying nation on Earth, and some fear that rising ocean levels could swamp it within a century.

Nasheed has announced plans for a fund to buy a new homeland for his people should that happen. He's also promising to make the Maldives the world's first carbon-neutral nation within a decade.

At the meeting, the Cabinet plans to sign a document calling on all countries to cut carbon emissions ahead of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.