To dramatize the threat posed by rising sea levels due to global warming, Mohamed Nasheed, president of Maldives, has scheduled a Cabinet meeting for this Saturday, at which members will call upon on the international community to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The catch? They’ll be underwater.

Maldives is a nation of 1,200 coral islands with an average elevation less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) and among those countries most at risk of succumbing to the sea. If, as scientists have predicted, sea levels rise 0.8-2.0 meters between now and 2100, the Maldives will cease to exist.

What seems abstract and remote to most of the world is very real to citizens of Maldives. Last year, Nasheed began reaching out to other nations about relocating his 400.000 countrymen if – or more likely, when — their homeland becomes uninhabitable.

As for Saturday’s underwater meeting, Nasheed and 14 cabinet members “will don scuba gear and descend to a table 20 feet (6 meters) beneath the surface,” where they’ll communicate using hand signals.

Which brings us to the first of this week’s Friday Night Movies… a TV spot promoting an underwater rally with 350 divers, to be staged October 24 by The Divers Association of the Maldives (DAM) as part of  350.org’s International Day of Climate Action.

The Divers Association of the Maldives: Underwater Rally Promo

Looking at cause and effect through a different lens, we have The Bill, a short German film about CO2-intensive lifestyles and those in the developing world left to pick up the tab for the excesses of others (see Maldives).

The Bill was one of three winners of the Germanwatch screenplay competition about Climate Justice. Note: there are couple of unexpected twists toward the end so be sure to watch the whole way through.

Climate Justice: “The Bill”