The president of the Maldives says the Indian Ocean nation will
become the world's first carbon-neutral country within a
decade.
Writing in Sunday's edition of Britain's Observer newspaper,
President Mohamed Nasheed said his country of low-lying tropical
islands faced "a real threat to our survival" from rising sea
levels produced by global warming.
Climate researchers say that many of the Maldives' 1,200 islands
could disappear if the seas continue to rise. Much of the
archipelago is only 5 feet (1.5 meters) above sea level.
Scientists meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark last week warned that
climate change was accelerating faster than predicted. They said
melting glaciers and ice sheets could help push the sea level up by
as much as 39 inches (1 meter) by the end of the century.
Nasheed said his country would renounce oil and get all its
energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar power.
"Going green might cost a lot but refusing to act now will cost
us the Earth," he wrote.
Nasheed accused politicians around the world of failing to act
and striking "a grotesque Faustian pact" by sacrificing the
environment's future for fossil-fuel consumption today.
"Today, the Maldives will opt out of that pact," Nasheed
wrote.
He said the Maldives would officially announce its plan later
Sunday at the premiere of the environment-themed British film "The
Age of Stupid."
The screening, in a tent in London's Leicester Square, is being
billed as the world's first solar-powered film premiere.
The pciture is so niceeee!.... How I wish I can see more of
those around... :(