The Maldives

In this post I will not only take a close look at one isolated effect of the Global Environmental Change, but on a whole country: the Maldives.

The Maldives are one of the most popular examples of how a global environmental change could effect a certain country and society. One of the reasons for this popular status are the very effective publicity campaigns by the local government: an example is a cabinet meeting in 2009, which was held underwater to create awareness for their situation (Link to a BBC article about the conference).

To give a short overview to the situation of the maldives I recommend you to watch this short video from the BBC (less than 3 minutes): Link to the Video.

I was encouraged to write a blog post about this particular case by two different factors. One is the popularity of Maldives examples, and the second is a newly published pear-reviewed article which shows that the sea level rises about 60% faster than it was predicted in the IPCCC report in 2007. The report found that an annual sea level rise of 3.2 millimeters takes place - to some that might not seem like a lot, but it is (Link to source).

But are the Maldives actually so vulnerable?

Khan et al. described the Maldives, in an article already published in 2002, as "extremely vulnerable" to climate change and as the "flattest country on earth" (Link). They estimate under extreme projections, that up to 85% of the Maldives' geographical area could be under water by 2100. Just by these predictions I see no reason that anyone can doubt the vulnerability of the Maldives to the effects of Global Environmental Change.

They many reasons for these dramatic outlooks are: the small size of the islands, the narrow width, their low elevation, and the vulnerable natural structure of coral reefs and atolls.

The conditions that actually place the Maldives at groom risk are, according to the United Nations Development Program, the precipitation, the sea surface temperature, storm acitvities, swell waves and ocean acidification (Link to source).

But what can they do?

The people living on the Maldives themselves don't have any significant influence on the world politics. So their only way to deal with this situation at the moment is to adapt to the changing environment.
This table by Benjamin Sovacool (published in 2012 in Climate Change) provides a good overview over potential adaptation methods (I encourage anyone who is interested in the different adaptation methods to read this very good article - Link blow):

Link to the source - table 1.

By looking at the current situation and the estimated situation in the future (already before the newly published numbers of sea level rise speed) there is not much time to react. The only option for the people of the Maldives is at the moment to adapt to the upcoming situations or to prepare to leave their country. Rumors about plans of the government to buy land in India for the worst case situation are wide spread but not approved. But without major changes this might be their only long time adaptation method...