Global Warming Causing the Maldives to Buy New Homeland?
Global warming could cause a lot of islands to be covered by the rising ocean. But what do you do if that island is your country and home? President Mohamed “Anni” Nasheed of the Maldives has an answer: move your country.
On Monday, Nasheed told The Guardian that he would start setting aside some cash to buy a new homeland if he loses his to global warming. The money would come from the country’s tourism industry, which brings in a billion dollars annually, and would go into a sovereign wealth fund, reports Australia’s Age.com.
Australia is on the shortlist of possible real estate. So is India and Sri Lanka because they are like the Maldives culturally.
While out there, this may be the only reasonable idea for the island country that doesn’t have the political backing to have much say in international global warming policy. The other option, according to the old Maldives president, is to build a wall around the island. But apparently that’s more expensive than relocating an entire country.
This is most definitely an adaptation strategy - the Maldives are looking beyond merely stopping carbon emissions. But small countries may not have any choice anymore.
Is it time for drastic action like this? Or will this drastic action put a stop to mitigation techniques because politicians will just look for the easy way out (if moving a homeland can be considered the easy way!)?
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Photo Credit: naxief at Flickr under a Creative Commons License
Dr. Nils-Axel Mörner, probably the highest authority on sea levels and coastline changes (from Sweden) did publish a paper last year about the Maldives, after many years of studying the area. Results: sicne 1970 the sea level has GONE DOWN around the Maldives!
See: http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=129
Getting 1 billion dollars in tourism revenues seems the result of the hype about their supposed “sinking”. What a hoax!
[...] will still be enough to drastically alter the world, specifically places like Bangladesh or the Maldives (or even, perhaps, New York City), but it is obviously not as destructive as two meters. Does the [...]