Maldives is now the poster-child for the consequences of climate change. Global warming will almost certainly lead to the demise of these islands which are predicted to submerge in thirty years’ time. Disappearing into the rising sea, it will become the first country having to relocate all its population as refugees due to global climate change.
While Maldives is almost about to hit its tipping point, the 449,365 Maldivians will have no choice but to travel away and find new homes. The Government considered Australia, India and Sri Lanka as countries of relocation, back in 2008. However, since the Presidency changed, Maldives is determined to stay put and resist climate change. The people are now faced with an extremely challenging psychological reality – they come from an island on which their grandchildren will never live or know the roots of. Adding to this gloom, the tombs of their grandparents will soon be swallowed by the sea. This damage is enough to render the place as an unfulfilling and unsustainable place to live in. Currently, there is no real change in levels of emissions to save the islands from disappearing. Combining past emission levels, there will be a 3°C rise in the world’s temperature which is enough to sink the islands. Relocation of people due to climate change is not unprecedented. But, as said, this would be the first time that an entire country would relocate due to being built on land that will no longer exist…
Rising sea levels are an effect of top emitting nations, which release exorbitant amounts of Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Both the atmosphere and the oceans are increasingly absorbing carbon. This process leads to ocean acidification, which is accompanied by a plethora of negative effects. The Maldives heavily depends on fishing as a main source of occupation. Due to climate change those dependent on that sector now have a low-quality life. Temperature change looms as a threat, making the area prone to natural disasters and physically dangerous to inhabit. The majority of its islands are less than one or two meters above sea level. And similarly to many other South Asian and oceanic archipelagos, the island’s topography is being decomposed by high surface erosion and sea levels.
Maldives is and will be the perfect example to illustrate the link between climate change, human rights and migration. Unless, policymakers understand migration as a climate change adaptation option and pay attention to related development issues every effort is destined to fail. Thus, it is essential to understand human choices of migration in this process as well, namely what migrating implies in such a scenario and with the limited resources available to adapt.
While some say that this issue is a hoax, a report in October, 2018 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has confirmed that Kiribati, the Maldives, Tuvalu and Marshall islands are about to sink. Thus, it is time to act and not speculate. The Maldives came up with a monitoring plan to unite all countries in presenting solutions at the UN Climate talks in December 2018. The Former President Mohamed Nasheed stated the urgent need to implement the Paris Agreement’s call for keeping global warming than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). The country’s appeal was – “We don’t think we are asking for much. We are just only saying: Please do not kill us.”
It should be every country’s resolution to come up with immediate actions in regards to the trauma that every Maldivian will be witnessing. An option could be requiring larger emitting nations to pool-in funds to support relocation to new places. Another plausible recommendation could be for these countries to accept refugees from Maldives into their nations, basing it on the amount of carbon they emit. Finally, both options can be combined together with serious commitment to lower emissions, otherwise a greater catastrophe loom above us all. The entire world is to be blamed and in this case the country itself does not have a significant contribution to the issue. For this reason, Maldivians should be granted a special refugee status. This is an environmental disaster accompanied by slander, apathy and human destruction. If we do not mend our apathetic ways, the Maldives will be the first in a series of human based ecological atrocities that will affect the entire world.
38 comments
38 Comments
Dr. Samir DasGupta
25/03/2019, 4:42 pmUNO should convene a special meeting to consider Maldiv’s future. Both India and Pakistan should be involved .
REPLYOleena Chaudhuri@Dr. Samir DasGupta
25/03/2019, 8:37 pmVery true. In fact every South-east nation should join hands.
REPLYDee Neveaux
10/06/2019, 3:51 pmIn 1988 warning was given that the Maldives would be ‘sunk’ and non existent in 30 years time.
REPLY30 years later warning is again being given that in 30 years time Maldives will have ‘sunk’ and be non existent.
I believe in 30 years time the Maldives will still be exactly where they were 30 years ago and "climate change scientist/alarmists" will again be crying wolf!
Oleena Chaudhuri@Dee Neveaux
19/06/2019, 2:04 pmLet us just hope what you say turns out to be correct! While the country is preparing itself to evade this crisis, we should not just sit and contemplate.
REPLYDan@Oleena Chaudhuri
02/11/2019, 1:33 pmYou are an idiot, we have been to Maldives 4 times is has not changed at all. They still invest in hoteks.
About 39 years ago they said the same thing you are saying now. Your are a fool
REPLYMary Barrand@Dee Neveaux
23/09/2019, 2:27 amI agree, we first there in 1988 because friends told us that we had better go sooner rather than later since the islands were slowly disappearing underwater due to rising sea levels and the coral would be dead. We visited the islands on a regular basis until the early 2000’s and in the 90’s the seas were warmer and the coral was being bleached but within the next few years it had all come back. We have proof of this since my husband films underwater on all his dives.
REPLYGeoff Thomas@Dee Neveaux
30/09/2019, 12:08 pmExcellent previous comment and oh so correct! The Maldives are spending millions on an upgraded airport and major hotel chains are also spending millions on new accommodation in the country. Does anyone doubt that perhaps the Maldives are not going to disappear beneath the waves? Man made global warming is a socialist plot designed to redistribute wealth from the rich countries to the so called poor countries
REPLYLee Gill@Geoff Thomas
03/03/2021, 2:18 amAnd your comment is proof that you sure need some brain transplant @Geoff Thomas
REPLYJohn Summers@Geoff Thomas
22/09/2021, 6:38 amIt is amazing that the "scientists" just keep projecting doom that never ever materializes.
One website lists 50 examples of impending doom predicted since the 1960s, with none of them occurring at all by the purported date of Armageddon.
REPLYSlim@Dee Neveaux
15/07/2021, 12:02 amThat is true, they where panicking about the ‘sea level’ in the year of 1980, stating that there would be no island nations left in the Indian Ocean in thirty years time. Forty years later they have only thirty years left. Bur you have to remember that money is poured into these island nations to help with sea defences. Also notice that the populace of the Maldives have chosen to stay on these doomed islands, I wonder why. Yes, they have a new airport to ferry more tourists in those evil aircraft, producing more CO2, but there are no complaints about that. They must know that CO2 has no bearing on climate and never has.
REPLYBob Halo@Dee Neveaux
08/10/2021, 9:54 pmAgain, didn’t they sink 30 years after the 1988 Article from the Washington times…..ROFL
REPLYPeter Richardson@Dee Neveaux
05/05/2022, 4:42 pmI note in March 2019 you say that the Maldives is “almost about to hit its tipping point”. That’s so nice and vague, no definition of “tipping point” no timescale for “almost about”. So where are we now?
REPLYCris T
01/10/2019, 11:25 pmIn 2012, former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed said, "If carbon emissions continue at the rate they are climbing today, my country will be under water in seven years." He pledged to make the Maldives carbon-neutral by 2020. But… "[Nasheed’s] successors have been less proactive: last September [2016] the emissions target was watered down to a 10 per cent reduction by 2030." https://www.ft.com/content/7f9c6208-a1ae-11e6-891e-abe238dee8e2
Despite this, seven years later… global carbon emissions continue to rise unabated, and the islands are still there. Millions are being spent on luxury housing, and hundreds of millions in Chinese and Middle East money is being spent on improving infrastructure (e.g. airports).
Does anyone believe that foreign investors, banks, and governments would be pouring hundreds of millions of dollars on islands they believed were about to sink? Why would the Maldivian government dramatically water down its own carbon targets if it believed this truly was so pressing? It seems the Maldivian government concluded that the economic stagnation resulting from cutting carbon emissions (dramatically curtailing energy production/consumption) was a greater threat than rising sea levels. It’s telling when apparently, even one of the most threatened nations on Earth believes this…
REPLYDennis B Williams
11/10/2019, 6:59 amOh dear, this opinion piece is total rubbish. Where is the empirical proof that the oceans have risen around the Maldives? Why are the Saudis investing a billion dollars in the Maldives. Why was there 8 new hotels open there in 2018? Why are Tuvalu and Kiribati Islands growing not sinking??
REPLYNaia Janson@Dennis B Williams
03/03/2021, 2:22 amJust like global warming didn’t happen over a day, the very same way the islands wouldn’t sink in a day. I mean, try to understand the situation and it’s gravity at least. The piece is about raising awareness so we tread with caution. We aren’t here to contest it! And it’s cool if you don’t wanna save the earth, because if you don’t, then at least I’ll try… 🙂
REPLYJohn Summers@Naia Janson
22/09/2021, 6:45 amBut spending billions or even trillions of dollars on a catastrophe that was never going to happen is bonkers.
The truth is that predictions of imminent disaster generate billions of dollars in grants to universities, allowing professors to live the high life rather than to teach. Attending conferences at six star hotels in Davos sure beats grading tedious term papers.
REPLYmaria
21/11/2019, 10:39 amLegit stuff
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