President calls on the world’s young people: take climate change fight to the streets
President Nasheed of the Maldives invoked the spirit of Martin Luther King as he called upon a generation of Americans to take to the streets in the battle to halt climate change.
In a stirring address at the Six Senses Eco Symposium at Soneva Fushi in the Maldives, he called upon young people in the US to replicate the street protests of the 1960s in a bid to persuade politicians to take further steps to halt global warming.
He said: “To move the US we must have direct action. The battle must be fought on the street. Politicians do not do anything unless told to do so by the people.
“We should all try to see how we can have another summer of protest. In the US it must be possible to galvanise the people. I believe it is possible and mass direct action must happen. I don’t know when it will happen, but I think we will see another 1960s when everybody is out on the streets.”
During his speech he revealed that evacuations had already taken place on 16 islands across the Maldives as rising sea levels force residents from their homes.
The President said: “One woman who was being forced to leave her home told me: “What about the butterflies? What about the colours and the sounds? Where will they go?”.
President Nasheed was recently named by Time Magazine as a “Hero of the Environment” and his comments are unlikely to be ignored in Washington.
His speech to assembled environmentalists invited by Six Senses CEO and chairman Sonu Shivdasani, he added: “My role is not on the science, or the finance mechanism. But I believe it is possible for me to connect to the young people of the US to rise to the occasion and save the world.
“Going carbon neutral in the Maldives will not save the world, but we must lead by example.”
Under President Nasheed’s leadership, the Maldives is on track to become carbon neutral by 2020 – the first country in the world to do so. Soneva Fushi is on track to become the first carbon neutral island and luxury resort by the end of 2012.
Valere Tjolle
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