, the new documentary from Jon Shenk (), is a remarkable work: a film about climate change that’s neither preachy nor boring. The movie, which won the people’s-choice award at the 2011 and opens in wide release this month, follows former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed as he travels from Britain to India, then to the 2009 , demanding policy change on behalf of his country, which could be swamped by rising seas. MARIO QUADRACCI caught up with Nasheed, who was the Maldives’ first democratically elected president, in late January—just weeks before .

OUTSIDE: You gave Shenk and his crew remarkable access. They even made it into the bathroom with you in Copenhagen. Did you ever say no?
NASHEED: When they came to the Maldives, I didn’t realize quite what I was getting into. I thought they would film a few scenes and then leave. I didn’t know they would want to follow me everywhere and film everything!

Global warming is very politicized these days. Is it divisive in the Maldives?
Any Maldivian has to take climate change seriously. Domestically, it’s not divisive. 

Do you have plans to adapt to rising sea levels?
We are talking about sea walls, revetments, and water breakers, and we are experimenting with supporting coral reefs, which naturally protect islands from erosion. But these schemes are expensive. We have 1,200 islands in the Maldives. If sea levels rise more than one meter, there is little we can do. The average elevation of our islands is just 1.5 meters above the sea.

In the film, you seem frustrated after months of trying to get the world to act toward finding a solution to climate change. Now, four years later, how do you feel?
We need to change the way we talk about tackling climate change. We keep telling people that they need to cut back on carbon emissions. But many politicians, especially in the developing world, equate carbon emissions with development. So telling people to cut back on emissions makes them think you are telling them to halt progress. Let’s stop asking countries not to do things. Instead, ask them to do positive things, like invest in renewable energy. The Maldives has agreed to invest 2 percent of our national income in clean-energy projects, to help pay for our goal to become carbon neutral by 2020.

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THE SPORT ONCE known as “the Chinese downhill”—four racers simultaneously attacking jumps, banked turns, and tabletops in a full-contact race to the finish—is suddenly in the Olympics. The U.S. team consists of Daron Rahlves, 36, and Casey Puckett, 37, two former World Cup downhillers with seven Olympics and no medals between them. They won’t be alone. Many ski-cross entrants in Vancouver will be World Cup veterans looking for the medal that eluded them. That makes you wonder whether ski-cross is an exciting new event designed to spice up the stodgy Olympics with some X Games verve or a consolation prize for racing’s elder statesmen.

“A lot of retiring racers want nothing to do with it,” says U.S. Ski Cross coach Tyler Shepherd, who had four Olympic berths to fill, but only Rahlves and Puckett could even finish heats in international competition.

That’s because, in addition to being seen as less worthy than racing against the clock, ski-cross is also considerably more dangerous. Heats are often decided by who’s left standing after demolition-derby-style pileups. But if the risks make ski-cross a gladiatorial spectacle, they’re also its athletic redemption. Ski-cross is to downhill what ultimate fighting is to boxing: It may not require the precision, but few would argue that it isn’t a more exciting contest. In Vancouver, no matter who claims the gold, it’ll be the rebirth of a former racer who clawed his way back to put it all on the line just one more time. And who doesn’t love an Olympic comeback?

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OUTSIDE: From the start, when you hitched a ride on Ocean Warrior with conservationist Paul Watson, this was quite an adventure.

STEWART: When we encountered shark poachers off the coast of Guatemala, Ocean Warrior used water cannons, trying to flood the boat’s engine. After a half-day battle, the boats collided. We ended up in Costa Rica, facing seven counts of attempted murder.

And you filmed all of this?
I filmed for the record, so we didn’t get stuck in jail for life. Then we stumbled on evidence linking the Taiwanese mafia to the shark-finning industry—poachers cut off a shark’s fins, sold for shark-fin soup, and throw the fish back in the sea to die.

Which led to death threats …

We fled by boat, while Costa Rica’s coast guard fired machine guns in the air. Then I got dengue fever, tuberculosis, and West Nile virus all at the same time.

That’s a lot to go through for a film.
But the message is important. With 73 million sharks killed each year for their fins, we’re in real danger of losing them.

Sharkwater shows us sharks as the prey, not the predators.
More Americans are killed by falling vending machines each year than by sharks. But every shark attack is covered by the media, and films like Jaws and Open Water play on people’s fears. Very rarely are sharks shown in a realistic light.

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