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The Maldives archipelago of 1200 islands stretch 800 kilometers across the Indian Ocean and are just a few meters above sea level. Their natural beauty is infamous but they are highly vulnerable to sea level change because of their very low aspect. A sea level rise of even half a meter would submerge many atoll islands and make others uninhabitable.
As well as the threat from sea-level change the islands are also under a very real threat from an increase in ocean temperature. Increases in water temperature could destroy the coral reefs that play a large part in protecting these islands from waves. Global warming has always been a point of conjecture among many environmental scientists, however, the unprecedented rapid melting of Arctic sea ice in 2007 has turned the view of many and now many agree that there is a definate warming and it is happening more rapidly than was originally thought.
In 2008 a leading climatologist, James Hansen, published a paper which presented fatcs demonstrating that the actual safe limit for carbon in the atmosphere was at most 350 parts per million and that anything higher than that would have catastrophic effects globally.We have already reached that level with the current concentration at 390 ppm and rising.
Its not only the Maldives under short-term threat however. Neighboring countries like Bangladesh are already suffering saltwater intrusion as seas rise; Australia is enduring epic droughts, and forests across western North America are succumbing to pests multiplying in the growing heat.
The fact that we are already suffering the effects of warming is probably the main reason why no one is junping for jiy at the recent pledge of the G8 nations to take steps to try and restrict temperature increase to 2 degrees and atmospheric concentration of Carbon Dioxide to 450 parts per million. A few years ago, those might have been realistic goals, but our current scientific findings indicate that they’re out of date.
Later this month, over 100 world leaders will meet at New York for the United Nations’ Climate Change Summit. On 24th October 2009, the Maldives will hold the largest underwater political demonstration in history with snorkelers and divers taking banners down to the coral reefs as a reminder to everyone of what is at stake.