Världens främsta tänkare - ett skämt?

39. Mohamed Nasheed

for putting a face -- his own -- on the peril of climate change.

President | Maldives

In October 2009, shortly before the Copenhagen climate negotiations went bust, Mohamed Nasheed and a dozen of his cabinet ministers strapped on scuba tanks and wet suits and convened at an underwater conference table near the capital city of Malé. Communicating by hand signals, they signed a declaration calling on countries to cut their carbon emissions. Afterward, Nasheed was asked what would happen if they didn't. "We are going to die," he said.

Since taking office two years ago, Nasheed, a 43-year-old former human rights activist, has become the world's most environmentally outspoken president. He has made his tiny country -- a string of atolls in the Indian Ocean that sits an average of just 7 feet above sea level -- a poster child for the need to stop global warming. Last year he vowed to set a symbolic example by making the Maldives the world's first carbon-neutral country within a decade. Now he's accusing the United States of being the biggest obstacle to fighting climate change, calling for "'60s-style catalystic, dynamic street action."

"If the people in the U.S. wish to change," he told a British audience, "it can happen."