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Article: Letter from Maldives - Not sinking but drowning.(Maldives faces rising sea levels)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- May 13, 2000
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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MALE, MALDIVES
HOW do you keep paradise afloat? The Maldivians urgently want to know. Their ocean country is made up of more than a thousand coral islands strewn across the turquoise waters of the equatorial Indian ocean. Buoyed by good weather, good location and lots of tourism, the country's 250,000 or so citizens lead comfortable lives. Yet for how much longer, nobody knows. The sea around them is rising.
The problem of greenhouse gases may sound nebulous in Maidstone or Miami. But to the people of Maldives it is a clear and present danger. The noisy tea shops of Male, the capital, are full of men (no women: this is an Islamic country) who can tell ...