Time Magazine’s “Hero of the Environment” President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives believes in climate change. This belief has caused him to put together the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting, and deliver the following speech to the UN, and pledge to make the Maldives carbon neutral.

“Our country will not exist.”

Perhaps there might be more action from Harper in Canada if 24 Sussex Drive were threatened by climate catastrophe like Male, the capital of the Maldives. What would have been the Bush legacy on climate change if Dubya had waterfront property in Louisiana and not a ranch in Crawford?

President Nasheed understands the urgency of climate change, his government sees it as an existential threat to their survival. Perhaps by understanding the risks that people of the Maldives and other threatened countries face, we can quantify the risks that climate change pose, and give it the attention it deserves.