Black Comedy in the Maldives

International climate and democracy hero Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives, has been sentenced to thirteen years in prison for alleged “terrorism” after a controversial trial that Amnesty International condemned as “a travesty of justice.” The governments of the United States, Great Britain, the European Union, Canada and India have said they are “deeply concerned” that the trial was not “conducted in a transparent and impartial manner or in accordance with due legal process,” in the words of Hugo Swire, a British Foreign Office minister. Nasheed responded to the sentence by giving a statement to the court that urged citizens of the Maldives “to stay courageous and strong, to confront the dictatorial power of this regime…[and] to take all of your lives in your hands and go out onto the streets in protest.”

'The Island President': Mohamed Nasheed, Former Maldives Leader, Battles Climate Change

Maldives is going underwater. Literally.

Due to rising sea levels, studies suggest that the country, a chain of nearly 1,200 islands, could be uninhabitable by 2100. What's the leader of the lowest lying country on Earth to do?

If you're former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, you pull underwater publicity stunts, aim to become the world’s first carbon-neutral country and allow a documentary crew to follow your desperate attempts to salvage a nation.

Despite having recently been ousted from the presidency in an alleged "coup," Nasheed led a fervent fight against man-made climate change while in power. "The Island President," a documentary by filmmaker Jon Shenk, follows Nasheed's first year as president of the Maldives, culminating in the carbon emissions battle at the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit.

Shenk described to The Huffington Post the “wonder of the world” that he found filming in the Maldives. And yet, “you go to the beaches and see that they have to use sandbags to stop the sand eroding. You go to the sea walls and see the water is coming over the walls. It’s a place where climate change is already having an impact.”