Before he was deposed in a 2012 coup, Nasheed commented on the event’s cultural power:

our means are very, very modest. We can’t go in for big advertising campaigns, and we cannot really compete with oil companies at all. So we decided, you know, how do we get the message across? We understood the gravity of it, the seriousness of it. So, to bring the message across, we had an underwater cabinet meeting… The idea was that if you did nothing, this is what the Maldives would be. So I think that did register among many, many, many, many people.

Elsewhere, he added, You see, we don’t have that kind of finances, and therefore, the question comes, you know, how do you impress upon the people the gravity of the issue? I was accused by many that the underwater cabinet meeting was a media stunt. Of course it was a media stunt, but the idea is to impress upon the people the gravity of the issue without publicity companies and without all the money that goes into a PR. And I think the people of this planet have so much power, and they must become active; a direct action is so important.

In an interview with artist Soren Dahlgaard, Nasheed discussed the role of art in communicating about climate change:

There are many ways and avenues of getting the message across to as many people as possible. I think artists, writers, politicians, activists, everyone has a role to play and we should actively be more engaged in doing our part…

Describing Nasheed as the ‘first precursor of the Arab Spring, the Mandela of the Indian Ocean’, Bill McKibben of 350.org commented that ‘He has provided the leadership, both symbolic and practical, that we desperately need’. Hirsch (2015) writes that the event was ‘at once a smart photo opportunity… and a declaration of “war:” an ethical war against carbon-dioxide’.

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