Jon Bowermaster editor of the new book titled Oceans, The Threats to Our Seas and What You Can Do To Turn the Tide recently interviewed President Mohammed Nasheed of the Maldives. President Nasheed is one of the most outspoken politicians in the world on the threat of climate change and its impact on all coastal areas, especially the Maldives. Oceans is an anthology of new essays by thirty of the most intriguing ocean thinkers in the world is officially released on Earth Day (this Thursday).
Jon Bowermaster: How immediate is the problem of climate change and rising seas in the Maldives today? What evidence are you seeing?
President Nasheed: Climate change is not a distant or abstract phenomenon in the Maldives. The affects of climate change are being felt today. One third of inhabited islands in the Maldives are suffering from coastal erosion, which is exacerbated by climate change. Fishermen are complaining that weather patterns have become unpredictable and warmer and more acidic seas threaten our coral reefs. If the world fails to curb carbon dioxide emissions and global temperatures continue to soar, these problems will worsen over the coming decades.
President Nasheed, left, after his underwater cabinet meeting
JB: Have sea levels risen already?
PN: The Environment Ministry calculates that sea levels in the Maldives are rising by 0.7 mm per year, which is around the global average. The big fear, however, is that this rise in sea level accelerates as climate change starts to rise even more towards the end of this century. This is a concern not just to the Maldives, but all low-lying areas around the world. A one-meter rise in sea levels, which some climate scientists warn will happen if nothing is done to reduce carbon pollution, would be devastating for the Maldives. Such a rise would also inundate other low-lying countries such as Bangladesh and the Netherlands and seriously threaten many of the world’s coastal cities. We must not allow this to happen.
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