Second Life Climate Change Conference

A virtual climate change conference on Second Life draws attention to the effect on small islands.

The virtual world might be largely immune to climate change, but the real world isn’t. That was one of the implicit points made when minister from the Maldives, Malta and the UK hosted a virtual climate change press conference on Second Life.   More important, though, was the effect it’s had on islands around the globe.   "Twenty years ago the president of Maldives, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, warned assembled world leaders in the UN that climate change, if left unchecked, would mean the death of Maldives and many more like it," Maldives foreign minister Abdulla Shahid, Maldives said at the conference, according to the BBC.   The virtual conference followed a live conference held in the Maldives, ahead of a larger summit in Bali next month.   By using Second Life, the minsters were able to reach a much wider range of the earth’s population to talk about the impact climate change is having on everyone/   "You are the front line of the battle against climate change. I think you can send not just very clear alarm, but also a very clear message to the international community," explained British Foreign Minister David Miliband.