Climate Change Threatens Maldives

(CBS)  They look like strings of pearls floating in a crystal clear ocean, but the expression "trouble in paradise" could have been invented for the Maldives. CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports that the Maldives is more than 350,000 people - may be the first to feel the climate change pain. People whose lives have always depended on the sea, but who now live in fear that predicted sea level rise - caused by global warming - will simply wipe their country off the map.

United Nations Climate Change Conference
Maldives and Rising Sea Levels, A Case Study
Maldives Blog by Mark Phillips

The president of the Maldives is famous for being blunt.

"We've had it. There's no debate, there's no question," said Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed. "If it's the upper limits, we've really had it."

No place in the Maldives is higher than seven feet ten inches above sea level. Eighty percent of the land lies three feet or less above the waves.
And sea levels are predicted to rise by as much as 23 inches this century according to the UN's Climate Change Panel. Other more recent studies have warned the world's oceans may rise even higher.

Official Website of President Mohamed Nasheed
Maldives Tourism Website

Phillips demonstrated the possible levels that the water could reach. The low end of the predicted sea level rise would mean the water level would reach his waist. The more dire predictions would mean it reaches his neck -- or worst of all, underwater entirely.

That is why President Nasheed decided to make as big a splash as possible to publicize the threat. He held a cabinet meeting under water.

"Well that's the bottom line isn't it - under water," Nasheed said. "That's where we will end up. In many senses that might be where we will be having our cabinet meetings in the future."

Diplomacy Under the Sea Blog
Maldives Cabinet to Meet on Sea Floor

The Maldives have already had a taste of disaster. The 2004 tsunami swept over these islands killing close to a hundred people.

But what happens to people here if the oceans rise up and stay -- not to mention to the billion or so others around the world also living in low-lying countries?

Here, they call it Plan B: a fund to transplant the entire population "somewhere" - a new ark. India, Sri Lanka and even Australia have been mentioned.

"We want to be in a situation where we have some of our own money if we become climate refugees. Some might become boat people. A lot of us will die," Nasheed said. "Whoever survives might be floating somewhere. We really are talking about our own grandchildren. And if you cannot provide for them, there's really very little point of having a government now."

"In fact, the effects of climate change are already being felt. Marine biologists say an El Nino-style warming of the seas a decade ago caused a mass kill off of the coral reefs that protect the islands.

"If the reefs are not healthy any more they can't sustainably produce more sand so eventually you will end up with less and less sand around the beaches of the islands," said marine biologist Anke Hofmeister of Six Senses resorts.

"And less and less island," said Phillips.

"More erosions, yup," Hofmeister continued. "And in this way the Maldives could be under threat."

(CBS)

"Some resorts here are already trying to cut their own carbon output in line with President Nasheed's call for the country to set an example by becoming carbon neutral by the year 2020.

But for a place so dependent on tourists flying in from thousand of miles away, and travelling to the outlying resorts by sea-plane, carbon neutrality is but a dream at this stage.

"Enjoy it while you can," Hofmeister said. "Come to the Maldives while you still can, while they're still there."

The Maldives have become the canary in the global warming coalmine.

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[Frozen_Canuck]

Doesn't anyone check any of their facts anymore? The Maldives is in one of the few areas of the earth where sea level has been FALLING. In fact, sea level has not changed significantly for about 150 years in the Maldives. 200 years ago, sea level was actually 200 mm (eight inches) higher than it is now.

Look it up. Here is an example: http://www.speroforum.com/a/21314/Scientist-Maldives-sea-level-is-not-rising

So why all the hoopla?

It's all about MONEY. Didn't anyone notice ... even good old Hillary is promising billions ... and for what?

[lakota2012]

by eclecticman1:
"And by the way, it is the Greenland ice cap which is melting fast and which is held to be the key to global water rise."
===============================================






Unfortunately, while East Antarctica's snow/ice mass is growing, it is the loss by West Antarctica that gives the continent a net LOSS of ice/snow through melting, and will only increase as the southern hemisphere's oceans have reached CO2 saturation. That added to the accelerated melting of the Greenland land ice, will undoubtedly put places like the Maldives underwater by the end of the 21st century!

It is this growing PHYSICAL EVIDENCE that proves global warming beyond any doubts -- especially from highly-partisan DENIALISTS trying to use 10-year old e-mails and their usual propaganda as their moronic "smoking gun" against science, a WAR they have been waging for decades!

[Frozen_Canuck]

Check the dates on the emails you referred to as "10 years old" Some are from this year (2009). Then read the programmers comments. Then check adjusted temperature data against raw data and think about what is going on. Why are all those adjustments similar and in the same direction?

Does no one think for themselves anymore?

[eclecticman1]

The earth is not an apple baking in the oven. It is a huge, complex entity and so while parts are warming up quickly, other parts aren't. Even the so called evidence that the Antartica cap is getting more snow and ice is due to global warming. The surrounding waters are getting warmer and warm water evaporates faster than cold. So this extra moisture is turning into snow when it hits the colder Antartica land mass. And by the way, it is the Greenland ice cap which is melting fast and which is held to be the key to global water rise.

[PolicyThree]

"The earth is not an apple baking in the oven. It is a huge, complex entity and so while parts are warming up quickly, other parts aren't."

Brilliant. That must be what thousands of scientists world-wide don't get. They just think it's like an apple in an oven. Whew! False alarm!

[Sky017]

One more thing. People are getting alarmed because of in the exposed e-mails someone says he is going to use a 'trick'.

Well, what is 387 X 25?

It's 9,675 and I did it in my head without a calculator. I used a *TRICK* that many people know of. To multiply by 25, you multiply by 100 (add 2 zeroes) and divide that big number by 4.

OMG! What I did is a SCAM! Nope, there are lots of TRICKS (shortcuts) in Mathematics and Statistics.

How can over 3,000 scientists in over 100 countries collude on a conspiracy? Sheesh!

Climate Change and its consequences are real!

[Frozen_Canuck]

You don't need 3000 scientists. You only need a couple that control the data. And as Galileo found out, you can be right and still be wrong.

Plus if you want funding, you better toe the line. Read the IPCC mandate. The conclusions are given, then you have to do the work to support it.

Same goes for many US grants. They tell you what the supposition is. To get "funding" you have to demonstrate the impact of global warming on your subject. Given that is the case, is it any wonder that "EVERYTHING" is caused by or negatively impacted by global warming? It is the old "When did you stop beating your wife?" question.

[fedup12]

wow I just googled it. Maldives look awesome. Too bad.

But on the brighter side other higher properties will soon be ocean front!

[fedup12]

I hope some rich climate change denialist has property there.

[ubrew12]

The IPCC says the Maldives is going underwater in about 50 years (give or take). As usual, the IPCC is WAY behind the eight-ball when it comes to what is going on in the Polar Regions. GRACE satellite data show that Greenland and Antarctica are now shedding 600 gigatons of ice a year (amount shed in 1997: ~0 gigatons). That amount is increasing by 10% a year. And this data doesn't go through CRU, for you Climategate conspiracy theorists out there.

Maldives will be underwater in 10-20 years. Fvck em.

[crispybear]

All I see in this article is that if the predictions are correct then Maldives will be underwater. errr... how much has it gone under so far? I don't see any 'facts' about that. Listen. If you look at the temperature it goes up, it goes down. The temperature has been going DOWN for the past 5 years. There was glacial melting at in the 30's and in the 19teens. (remembr the Titanic???) There is always going to be warming and cooling. but it's not anthropologic, its heliosentric.

[jmac0013]

The previous reply (above) was meant for you.

[americanmann]

I agree this is a big hoax and Al Gore cant defend anymore wake up people stop this before its to late

[americanmann]

I agrre this is a big hoax and Al Gore cant defend anymore wake up people stop this before its to late

[AhlCT]

Thank you for this very informative story.
I look forward to hearing part two regarding Greenland tomorrow.