Here is news that should please everyone – no exceptions: the Maldives are not in peril of drowning in rising seas.
The Indian Ocean coral islands are famous icons for the predicted catastrophe from rising seas caused by our CO2 emissions, but their new president now assures us they’re in no danger of sinking beneath the waves.
This is exactly what sceptical commentators have been saying about the Maldives’ scare tactics for years and years: that they were aimed more at extracting funds from gullible western nations than at providing courses in climatology. Either the new president has more sense than the last one, or the strident cries of alarm aimed at climate change do-gooders have finally been taken too seriously by the investing community who provide up-market resorts to sustain the country’s economy.
New President Mohamed Waheed, in charge since Mohamed Nasheed resigned in February in a process subsequently described as a military coup and which worries Commonwealth leaders, is keen to mollify investors. Continued confident investment would certainly help consolidate his grip on power.
He added that foreign investors were concerned about talk of a submerged Maldives (naturally, since a submerged development doesn’t pay back its investments). He vowed to work to retain investor confidence in the Maldives. Well, of course he would.
Journalists
Will our news media notice this astounding about-turn by the poster-boys for global warming?
Any Kiwi journalists reading this should try to get their chief reporters interested in covering the story. Though the news is not alarming and is therefore less appealing, publishing it would be a serious service to the news-reading public. It would even calm some fears.
Political turmoil in Maldives
Regrettably, the Maldives are being tested by real crises. Now visiting Sri Lanka, President Waheed revealed that the Maldives face financial and economic difficulties. An ominous admission that they’re also dealing with civil disorder was implicit in his assurance that “peace and stability would be maintained by resolving the present political strife.”
Confirming that, the NZ government issued a travel advisory notice on 10 Feb 2012 – “There is high risk to your security in Malé and we advise against all tourist and other non-essential travel to Malé Island (excluding Malé International Airport) due to political unrest. There is some risk to your security elsewhere in the Maldives due to an underlying threat from terrorism and civil unrest and we advise caution.” [NOTE: the word “advisory” is an adjective not a noun, even in Americanese. /editorial pedantry]
These problems are not forced on the Maldives by the climate but by human activities. With luck their government will soon forget about the imaginary and inconsequential “perils” of global warming and attend instead to these real problems.
h/t Tom Nelson via WUWT
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