I came across an excellent article in BBC written by Mohamed Nasheed. He is the president of the Maldives and in this article, he has discussed about his dream of turning the country in to a carbon-neutral place within one decade. Or in other words, he wants to make his country’s environment clean. This is an ambitious plan and the interesting thing is that it has come from the president of a country that is under threat of extinction because of rising sea level. Some people in the West believe very strongly that global climate is not getting hotter and sea level won’t raise either. Anyway, I am quoting from his writing:
Conventional wisdom dictates that small, developing nations such as the Maldives should refuse to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. This wisdom suggests that we should be lobbying for permits to pollute more, while apportioning blame for climate change squarely on the shoulders of big, industrialised nations.
But I am sceptical of this conventional wisdom, and of finger-pointing at the West, for neither of these policy positions does anything to help solve the climate crisis.
It is nice to see that he is a wise president. I hope that other statesmen could learn something from him. May be President Obama can visit Maldives and get some ideas about clean environment. Of course, Obama is right now very busy with GM bankruptcy problem. President Mohamed Nasheed thinks a lot about the environment and this certainly makes him an exceptional leader.