Maldives Builds Barriers to Global Warming

The Republic of Maldives was one of the first countries to recognize the danger of rising sea levels on the planet. It's also one of the first to come up with a plan to adapt to the changing world. President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has spent the past couple of years talking about that threat and in 1992 at the United Nations Earth Summit, he said, "I stand before you as a representative of an endangered people ,we are told that as a result of global warming and sea-level rise, my country, the Maldives, may sometime during the next century, disappear from the face of the Earth."It was a dramatic but factual claim at a time when few people had even heard of climate change. Today, scientists agree that the Earth is getting warmer and polar ice is melting and rising sea leavels will change the face of the globe erasing away land.President Gayoom initially tried political solutions, Maldives was the first country to sign the Kyoto protocol that was desgined to fight global warming, but it hasn't done much yet to slow down sea-level rise. Gayoom was able to persuade the Japanese government to pay for the $60 million wall after the floods of 1987, The wall reduced the vulnerability of Male, which is a mile long and houses one-third of the country's population. This is the only answer to save the isalnd, building more barriers decreases the "look" of the islands but hopefully wont change the tourism. Recently the Maldives government has started a a government funded savings account to buy land else where, so that their people will have a place to call home.

It is so sad to see this happen to a nation that hasn't really played apart in the Carbon Dioxide emissions, because of our actions aswell as European, and Asian countries enormous stress and disater have been put upon this small diwndling country. Hopefully the conservation effort to build sea walls con be properly funded especially by the countries that have been the catalyst in ths global warming problem.

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