Cabinet Meetings in Strange Places

Today I was enjoying myself with a simple crossword, when I suddenly realize that the pic in the middle is of a Mongolian Cabinet Meeting, held in late August 2010. It seems like President Elbegdorj took the initiative in response to the disaster that hit Mongolia this winter, in the form of the white zuud, which killed around 20 percent of the live-stock. Zuud is the Mongolian word for different forms of disaster. The white zuud is connected to snow, which normally is rather scarce in Mongolia. The climate is arid and Ulaanbaatar, for instance, has approximately 300 sunny days a year. Climate Change has during recent years increased the amount of snow during winter and as a consequence animals can't graze, but will starve, as they can't reach the grass.


In October 2009, the island republic of the Maldives the President Mohammad Nashhed set up a Cabinet Meeting beneath the surface of the sea, in order to protest against the consequences of Climate Change that threatens to make the islands of the Maldives disappear from the face of the Earth. What seems to be a small matter in the industrialised world, is a matter of life and living space in the Maldives.

In early December 2009, the Nepalese Cabinet held a Meeting, led by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, on 5,300 meters altitude, in front of Mount Everest, to protest against Climate Change.



"The Himalayas are important not only for the people of Nepal but for 1.3 billion people who depend on waters from the mountains for their livelihoods." said the Prime Minister.

These three snap-shots from different places on the planet show how hard Climate Change might hit different parts of our world. Cattle, sheep, goats and horses starve to death in Mongolia - the Maldives will disappear - disaster might result from vanishing glaciers in the Himalayas. The irony of it is that the people who gain to most at the present, from this state of world affairs, will probably not here when the descendants of the Mongolians, Maldivians and Nepalese reflect on what went wrong with Western Civilization. They are simply tougher then we are...