I'm sure all of you have heard of the Maldives but may not know exactly where they are. They're a group of tropical islands south of India. Check the green blur on the globe. Most people heard of these islands after the 2004 Tsunami that put the whole country underwater. The rest of us heard about it during recent international political debate when this country was predicted to be the first country needing abandonment because of Climate Change and creeping sea levels.
Well, the Maldives came up during a Climate Change conversation at my recent last dinner in Dublin. A new friend (one whom does not hail from the oldest city in the world) and I were discussing how the citizens of the Maldives would one day have to leave their paradisical islands. We talked about how kind the world would be to take them in because of their unfortunate elevation. She then asked me how the sea rising is different from the difficulties people in developing countries throughout the world are having right now. I listened to her, considering the many living in places with starvation, disease burdens with poor health care, unemployment, and unfertile land.
The world would accept the refugees of the Maldives, would they not? Sure, maybe we can stop this whole Climate Change thing and there will be no Maldivean refugees. Maybe we can even reverse and give the Maldives a little more elevation, but I digress. Well, I think the world would open their borders for these theoretic Climate Change refugees. But then I ask, why then aren't we saving the slowly sinking ships of today. The only way to save these ships I think is to give them harbor. Are there some places where less people should live in? Are there some places where more people could?
