Upon viewing this film, I learned that the Maldives is a country consisting of 2,000 low-lying islands, right in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It apparently has the lowest high point of any country in the world.
This compelling and important documentary, directed by Jon Shenk, centers on the remarkable efforts of the former President Mohamed "Anni" Nasheed to save his country from what he believed to be the great peril of rising temperatures and sea levels, caused by global warming.
Nasheed's story itself is amazing. Under the 30 year dictatorship of Maumoon Abdul Gayoon, Nasheed was arrested 12 times for political activism, tortured twice, and thrown into solitary confinement, in a small box, for 18 months. In April of 2005, he returned to the Maldives after his self-exile and somehow managed to oust Gayoon in an election in 2008.
From that point on, he tried to bring world attention to his country, citing that it could be destroyed by rising sea levels. He cited serious erosion of the beaches, fresh water contamination by the sea, serious fish depletion, and the increased risk of natural disasters, such as the tsunami of 2004 that reduced the GDP in the Maldives by 50%.
Leading up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit, of 2009, he traveled to speak to the British Parliament, the UN General Assembly, and any other meeting with world leaders he could schedule. I thought the documentary was particularly effective in giving the viewer a behind-the-scenes look at the negotiations that went on not only with world leaders but with his own advisers and Cabinet.
Nasheed developed a reputation as being a driving force to have world leaders agree to a cut in CO2 emissions. Some were calling him the new Global President. To me he came across as driven, motivated, sometimes sarcastic, and a little naive.
When he reached the Copenhagen Summit, where 192 countries were represented, he quickly realized that some of the major world powers, especially China were strongly opposed to any monitored CO2 emission reductions. They felt, as a new industrialized power, they would hurt their economy substantially by doing this. It was interesting to me to see the last minute wrangling at the Summit to get some type of agreement, by the political power brokers.
A note at the end of the movie, indicated that in 2012 security forces forced Nasheed to resign. Looking at various new reports it now seems to be a muddled picture politically in the Maldives.
Overall, I learned quite a bit from the film and felt the way it was presented was quite engrossing.
This compelling and important documentary, directed by Jon Shenk, centers on the remarkable efforts of the former President Mohamed "Anni" Nasheed to save his country from what he believed to be the great peril of rising temperatures and sea levels, caused by global warming.
Nasheed's story itself is amazing. Under the 30 year dictatorship of Maumoon Abdul Gayoon, Nasheed was arrested 12 times for political activism, tortured twice, and thrown into solitary confinement, in a small box, for 18 months. In April of 2005, he returned to the Maldives after his self-exile and somehow managed to oust Gayoon in an election in 2008.
From that point on, he tried to bring world attention to his country, citing that it could be destroyed by rising sea levels. He cited serious erosion of the beaches, fresh water contamination by the sea, serious fish depletion, and the increased risk of natural disasters, such as the tsunami of 2004 that reduced the GDP in the Maldives by 50%.
Leading up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit, of 2009, he traveled to speak to the British Parliament, the UN General Assembly, and any other meeting with world leaders he could schedule. I thought the documentary was particularly effective in giving the viewer a behind-the-scenes look at the negotiations that went on not only with world leaders but with his own advisers and Cabinet.
Nasheed developed a reputation as being a driving force to have world leaders agree to a cut in CO2 emissions. Some were calling him the new Global President. To me he came across as driven, motivated, sometimes sarcastic, and a little naive.
When he reached the Copenhagen Summit, where 192 countries were represented, he quickly realized that some of the major world powers, especially China were strongly opposed to any monitored CO2 emission reductions. They felt, as a new industrialized power, they would hurt their economy substantially by doing this. It was interesting to me to see the last minute wrangling at the Summit to get some type of agreement, by the political power brokers.
A note at the end of the movie, indicated that in 2012 security forces forced Nasheed to resign. Looking at various new reports it now seems to be a muddled picture politically in the Maldives.
Overall, I learned quite a bit from the film and felt the way it was presented was quite engrossing.