Underwater Cabinet Meeting by the Maldives government

The government of the Maldives held its first underwater cabinet meeting in order to draw international attention to the dangers of global warming. Most of the island nations featuring coral reefs and white sand beaches are tourist paradise but recline just over three feet above sea level and scientists have warned that these places could be not fit to inhabit in less than 100 years.

Dressed in full scuba gear, President Mohamed Nasheed conducted the meeting which was 30 minutes long and was at a depth of 20 feet off the coast just north of Male. Among the 14-member cabinet, only 11 ministers took part in the under see meeting, as one of them were currently in Europe while two of them were not well enough to attend the meeting.
A horseshoe-shaped table was arranged on the seabed for the ministers, and the c communication during the meeting was via white boards and hand signals.

The Divers Association of Maldives had trained the ministers from over past two months and it said the ministers, felt confident about the extraordinary convention.

The co-ordinator of the event was Aminath Shauna who said that the ministers have signed their wetsuits, which would be auctioned on the protectthemaldives.com website to accumulate fund for coral reef protection in the atoll-chain.
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 nearly uninhabitable. Therefore, Maldives, located southwest of Sri Lanka, has become a vocal campaigner in the battle to stop the progress of rising sea levels.