President Nasheed – Top Environmentalist of 2009

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

APresident Mohamed Nasheed, the incumbent President of Maldives who was elected in a historic election that replaced a 30 year old dictatorship in November 2008, has been selected as the top environmentalist of the year by Time magazine, an online magazine published in partnership with CNN.

Time magazine placed President Nasheed at the top of the heroes of the environment list for 2009 on 22 September; in the leaders and visionaries category.

The Time magazine divides environment heroes list in to 10 categories and includes leaders and visionaries, activists, scientists and innovators and moguls and entrepreneurs.

According to Time magazine, President Nasheed has been awarded the top position due to his tireless efforts to produce results from the oncoming Copenhagen summit.

In an interview given to Time, the President said ‘we are on the world’s front line’. In March, President Nasheeed announced that, his country, Maldives would, in the next 10 years, become the world’s first ever fully carbon-neutral nation. Tourists will have to pay a ‘green tax’. Environmentalists are now hailing Nasheed as a climate-change standard bearer ahead of crucial talks in Copenhagen in December.

However, President Nasheed knows only too well that time is fast running out, and soon after assuming office, he announced a plan for a sovereign wealth fund to finance the purchase of land, perhaps in a larger country such as Australia or India, that might serve as a new home for the entire Maldivian population. The President is clearheaded about the stark reality facing small island nations in the coming century. Buying land is the Maldives’ insurance policy. “We don’t want to leave,” he says. “But we don’t want to see our children and grandchildren in tents as refugees either.”

Second in the list of Time magazine’s environmental heroes for 2009 is famous Hollywood celebrity Cameron Diaz and third place is Mike H Pandey, a documentary film producer from India.

President Nasheed’s interviews and speeches at various forums, international and local, have caught the world media’s attention.

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