May Day Maldives

News in Brief

A call for direct action against climate change has been made by Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, a state made up of a necklace of atolls whose maximum natural ground level is only 7 feet 7 inches above sea level (ASL), and whose average ground level is only 4ft 11in ASL. Speaking at the Hay literary festival at the end of May, Nasheed said: “What we really need is a huge social ’60s-style catalystic, dynamic street action.”
The main problem was the US, not China: “If the people in the US wish to change, it can happen. In the ’60s and ’70s, they’ve done that.” Nasheed added: “We need to act very quickly.”