- Plans are afoot to relocate residents of the Maldives, an archipelago of 1,190 islands in the Indian Ocean that has an average elevation of only four feet.
- President Mohamed Nasheed has announced an unprecedented – even audacious – plan to try to relocate all 300,000 residents to a different nation. The plan would use tourism revenues to fund a sovereign wealth fund to secure the country’s future should it exist on its own territory or as a sovereign municipality within another area.
- Ever since his inauguration, Nasheed has advocated extreme action to save his nation from rising sea levels caused by global warming. Even a slight rise in global sea levels, which many scientists predict will occur by the end of this century, could submerge most of the Maldives. Nasheed has proposed India, Sri Lanka and Australia as possible safer territories.
- “If man can walk on the moon, we can unite to defeat our common carbon enemy,” Nasheed says. “I announce that the Maldives will become the first carbon-neutral country in the world.” To read a full New York Times report, see
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/magazine/10MALDIVES-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=nasheed%20+%20maldives&st=cse.
