Maldives Not Sinking – Gearing Up For More Tourists
Maldives, the most dispersed country on the planet with 1,192 island spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometers, already has 11 airports, including three international airports. The government has contracted both local and international companies to develop additional domestic airports across the archipelago in a bid to boost tourism. (1)
The Maldives are the Indian Ocean island group allegedly most threatened by global warming, yet they are building a new runway at its international airport. The 3,400 meter long, 60 meter wide runway will open the airport to the Airbus A380 jetliner, the world’s largest passenger airline. The $400 million runway project was awarded to China’s Beijing Urban Construction Group as part of ambitious plans to upgrade the country’s main international airport. (2)
Earlier, in 2013, despite all the money generating gloomy predictions of sinking islands, 30 new luxury hotels for future tourists were planned (3)
All of this, is spite of what the former President of the Maldives Islands, Mohammed Nasheed said: “If carbon emissions continue at the rate they are climbing today, my country will be underwater in seven years.” (4)
Well, today the islands have not gone underwater and remain popular with tourists like never before. Over a million tourists from across the globe visit the Indian Ocean island nation every year to holiday in one of the 120 resorts and 400 plus guesthouses located in all corners of the country.
The multi-billion tourism industry, which is the country’s main economic activity, relies heavily on the domestic transport infrastructure, especially air travel. (1)
So the airports are not designed to evacuate tourists because sea levels are ‘rapidly rising’, as climate alarmists claim. The airports are a long term investment aimed at drawing in even more tourists and they are based on the projection that they’ll still be very much in unhindered operation in 30 or 50 years from now.
Obviously, the catastrophic climate warnings are not being heeded. Most likely these warnings are not really serious at all.
Are They Sinking?
A paper analyzing 709 islands from across the globe revealed that no island larger than 25 acres, which includes ‘vulnerable’ Maldives, Tuvalu, Fiji, etc.–has decreased in size since the 1980s. In fact, 89% of islands assessed are stable or growing. (5)
In another paper Paul Kench and colleagues reported that island nations were not vanishing; 89% of island stations assessed were stable and growing, while another highlighted a net increase in land area of 2.9% in eight of nine atolls. (6)
So, in spite of President Nasheed saying the islands will sink, they will not, and tourism will be increasing once again as soon as the Covid scare is over.
References
- “Maldives to open five new airports in 2019,” maldives.net.mv, May 20, 2019
- “New runway construction begins at Maldives international airport,” maldivesindependent.com, March 15, 2018
- P. Gosselin, “Developers dismiss sea level rise claims—plan to build 30 new luxury hotels in the Maldives—Nasheed’s cash machine,” notrickszone.com, November 3, 2013
- P. Gosselin, “Sinking Maldives clear forests, pave beaches, to construct four new airportrs for future tourism,” notrickszone.com, November 20, 2020
- Virginia K. E. Duvat, “A global assessment of atoll island planform over the past decades,” onlinelibrary.wiley.com, October 25, 2018
- Paul S. Kench et al., “”Patterns of island change and persistence offer alternate adaption pathways for atoll nations,” Communications, 9, 605, 2018
About the author: Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology. He has written for The American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, Hawaii Reporter and Canada Free Press.
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K Kaiser
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Hello Jack,
Quite so!
The Maldives, Tuvalu, Fiji et al. are just fine.
It’s just that the ocean levels that do not want to follow their (and the other climate alarmists’) proclamations.
Clearly, that situation calls for “sanctions” on the seas.
Perhaps the “Holy See” can provide some guidance.
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Moffin
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Defund the seas. Clownfish lives’ matter.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi K Kaiser,
Almost missed reading your comment. At Herb’s last article (Page 5 now) has generated 88 comments of which I have been a part. Which is unusual for most PSI postings. There I have had a short conversation with a man named James. Who believes that the ‘observed’ evidence of erratic blouders seems unquestionable evidence that glaciers covered large northern portions of the continents of the Northern Hemisphere.
Because some hove proposed (without any observed evidence) that the glaciers which moved these erratic bloopers were a mile or two thick for which others have proposed (without any observed evidence) that the world’s ocean levels were 100 meter lower than they are now. And James believes all these proposed ideas which have no observed supporting evidence.
I believe you and I know that it would take an unimaginable amount of energy to evaporate a 100m layer of this ocean water. You, as I remember, are a chemist and we chemists understand the practical things of science and we know the for about 2000 years the popular idea was that elementary matter was air, water, earth and fire.
Have a good day, Jerry
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