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THIS POST IS A PRESENTATION OF A SERIES OF REPORTS SINCE 2010 ON THE DEVASTATION OF THE MALDIVES BY CLIMATE CHANGE BY WAY OF SEA LEVEL RISE AND CORAL BLEACHING: AND HOW THE MALDIVIANS USED THE CLIMATE ALARM TO PROFIT FROM THEIR FAME AS THE CLIMATE CHANGE POSTER CHILD. 

PART-1: SUMMARY AND CRITICAL COMMENTARY

The country called the Maldives consists of a number of islands mostly atolls located in the southwestern Indian Ocean next to Sri Lanka. With a population of 540,000 and per capita GDP of $15,563 USD (2019), it is at once the smallest and richest country on a per capita basis in the region. The economy, once dominated by fishing and shipping, has found immense wealth in the tourism industry, most famously by way of their “Honeymoon Water Villa Resorts” seen in the images above.

A feature of the Maldives that made it an attractive target for climate scientists looking for pitiful victims of the Industrial Economy of rich nations to be used to sell their climate agenda, is its flatness and proximity to the water.  The islands are somewhere between 1 to 3 meters above sea level and they are very very flat. These features of the Maldives imply that  projections of future sea level rise of a meter or more by the year 2100 will cause most of these islands to go under water.

A case had already been made in climate science that vulnerable small island states or SIDS (Small Island Developing States) were a special case in terms of climate change impacts because they can be presented as hapless and innocent third world victims of the industrial economy of rich nations that have brought about the climate crisis. It is thought that the climate crisis and climate action agenda of climate science will find a larger sympathetic audience if the call to climate action appeals to sympathy in a humanitarian and altruistic context. This strategy requires pitiful third world victims of climate change.

The Maldivians were thus used by climate science to sell their climate action agenda such that rich nations in the West would be motivated to take climate action thereby to save those Godforsaken people in the Maldives. In general, the putative victims of climate change tend to go along and to play their victim role expecting that their status as victims will bring some financial rewards.

But here, the Maldivians did something extraordinary such that even as climate science was using them to sell climate the Maldivians were using climate science to sell their tourism business and also to highlight  their climate victim status for additional financial gain.

Their climate victim game began with the government of the Maldives holding an underwater cabinet meeting to highlight their climate change sea level rise plight. This event was seen on TV all around the world. For the first time, the whole world came to learn that there was a place called the Maldives. The event also helped the climate science cause by highlighting the sea level rise catastrophe of climate change as well as by pushing the emotional argument of climate science that poor third world countries that had no part in the Industrial Revolution are being hurt the most. For a time, the Maldives had taken over from the polar bear as the poster child of climate catastrophe.

The Maldives were thus used to promote the climate change cause but for the clever Maldivians it also worked the other way around. Almost overnight the market for their tropical vacation paradise by the sea expanded from a small European clientele to South Asian and Middle Eastern countries that eventually took over from the Europeans as the largest market for Maldives tourism. At the same time, engineers and scientists in the West began proposing defensive measures that the Maldives can take to protect themselves from sea level rise and the UNDP and the World Bank jumped in to help with funding such projects.

The Maldives government thus undertook a huge climate change adaptation project called the City of Hope. It consisted of building new artificial islands that would be higher than the natural islands and above the projected sea level rise so that Maldivians can relocate to high ground. These new islands were adorned with new top of the line Honeymoon Water Villa Resorts that received free promotion as news about climate change adaptation and quickly drew new customers thus greatly expanding the Maldivian tourism business and economic prosperity.

Just as the anti industrial economy and anti capitalism movement of climate science was using the Maldives to promote its cause so it was that the Maldivians were using climate science alarmism to expand their Maldivian industrial economy and capitalism wealth. This caricature continued into great scientific missions and engineering projects funded by the West where Western scientists go to the Maldives on missions of scientific and engineering projects with lots of money and many scientists who will need honeymoon water villa resorts to stay in while they do their job.

Two of these projects are described below. One is a an engineering project to “protect the islands from powerful waves” and the other is a curious MIT project to “collaborate with natural forces of the ocean” that tend to build sandbars and to guide them to make them grow islands and re-build beaches. Both of these engineering projects worked with local NGOs and with the government both bringing enormous wealth and international exposure to the tiny country with so many luxurious honeymoon water villas to rent at $200 per night. The Maldives needs international exposure and a climate victim image to fill these villas with customers. In the relevant bibliography provided below, kindly take note of the papers by Paul Kench [LINK] that reveal a paleo history of the Maldives in which it has undergone higher sea levels than the level that climate science fears. 

CONCLUSION: Climate science had set out to use the Maldives to sell climate change in a cat and mouse game but instead got used by the Maldivians to sell honeymoon water villas at $200 per night and to bring in $millions in international assistance for climate adaptation.

PART-2: A BOOMING TOURISM ECONOMY IN THE AGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

2020: TTM Report: Maldives Tourism Industry Forecast 2023: Key Findings:
• Total tourist arrivals to reach 2.5 million by 2023
• Indian market to overtake Chinese market by 2021
• Indian and Chinese market to have 30% market share by 2023
• Europe to remain the largest market by region
• Average Daily Rate and Average Stay to fall with increase in Asian markets
• Operating bed capacity to increase by average 8%

The tourism industry is the largest economic sector in the Maldives. It plays a significant role in contributing towards the economic growth, earning foreign exchanges and creates employment opportunities in the tertiary sector. Our team at TTM decided to look into a brief overview into the Maldives tourism industry for the year 2019, including the key markets and the highlights along with the future forecast of the demand and supply of the industry for the next 4 years. Current Status: According to the statistics by the Ministry of Tourism, 2019 proved to be one of the most successful years with tourism reaching a target of the 1.5 millionth tourist arriving on November 24th, Maldives welcomed a record amount of 1,702,831 tourists. This was a 14.7% increase compared to 2018. After slowing in 2018, tourist arrivals rebounded during the first half of 2019 and continued to do so throughout the year. Europe has been the strongest region for the Maldives for the past few years and even in 2019. In 2019 tourist arrivals from Europe (49%) was with a 14.8% increase and 833,904 tourists. The second strongest performance was from Asia and the Pacific (41.4%). There were 705,117 tourists from this region in the year. This is a 13.5% increase compared to 2018. This was followed by American countries (5%) with 84,793 tourists, Middle East (3.5%) with 60,003 tourists and Africa with 18, 698 tourists.
Looking at the top 10 country-wise markets, though China market has continued to be in the top, after no increase in the growth for the past 3 years, the market had a 0.3% increase in 2019. Indian market, which was at 5th place in 2018 with 66,955 tourists, jumped to the 2nd position with a whopping 166,030 tourist arrivals in 2019 and India showed the highest growth rate with 83.5% in 2019. India is now one of the fastest growing outbound tourism markets in the world, second only to China. The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) estimates that India will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020. Maldives being geographically closer to the Indian market contributes to this growth. In addition to this, the emergence of more airlines and routes has increased the availability of options for the Indian travelers. Indian budget carriers such as GoAir, Spice Jet and Indigo have launched direct connections between Male and important Indian cities such as New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. The Germany and USA market also continued to show increase as the previous years while other markets Italy, UK, Russia, France, Japan and Australia showed a steady increase. Looking into the supply, with over 20 new resorts opened in 2019, there were 927 tourist centres registered by the end of 2019. Traditionally, the tourist centres mainly compromised of the resorts, however with the emergence of local island tourism in 2017, guesthouses have opened new options for even the budget travelers. Every year Maldives has witness over 1000 new operating bed capacity from guesthouses itself. By the end of 2019, the tourist centres include 152 resorts, 12 hotels, 607 guesthouses and 156 safaris. All this combined gave an accumulated operating bed capacity of 49, 924. This was a 13.9% growth in the operating bed capacity for 2019 compared to 2018. NOTE: Maldives 2019: Population=540,000,  Per capita GDP=$15,563 USD. Compare with Sri Lanka $3,947 USD, India $2,015 USD).

PART-3:  LIST OF MALDIVES CLIMATE CHANGE ALARMS

“THE ACADEMIC AGENT” PROVIDES A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MALDIVES SEA LEVEL RISE ALARM THAT HAS BEEN PERPETRATED BY CLIMATE SCIENCE SINCE 1990.

2010: WORLD BANK:  CLIMATE CHANGE IS AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT FOR THE MALDIVES BECAUSE FUTURE SEA LEVEL RISE OF 10 TO 100 CENTIMETERS WILL CAUSE THE ENTIRE COUNTRY TO BE SUBMERGED. The country’s coral reefs, which protect it from storm surges and serve attract tourists to its tourism economy, are in danger of being damaged or destroyed by poorly handled waste disposal methods. Rising sea temperatures also threaten the coral reefs and cause bleaching and death, with the most severe damage in areas that are stressed by pollutants, or damaged by physical disturbance. Vulnerability to climate change hazards has been magnified by damage to coral reefs which has in turn impaired their protective function, thus a negative cycle of impact. Its geography makes the Maldives vulnerable to climate change. Being land scarce and low lying, the country is exposed to damage caused by inundation, extreme winds, and flooding from storms. With the melting of polar ice caps, the Maldives is also exposed to the risks of sea-level rise. Future sea level is projected to rise within the range of 10 to 100 centimeters by the year 2100, which means the entire country could be submerged in the worst-case scenario. The World Bank is working with the Government to build capacity and knowledge on environmental issues. President Nasheed raised awareness of the disaster facing the Maldives by holding a cabinet meeting underwater where they signed a communiqué calling on all nations to cut their global emissions and called for the formation of the Climate Vulnerable Forum. The role of the World Bank is to promote responsible stewardship of global public goods. The coral reefs of Maldives stand as the first line of defense against storms and sea-level rise. Poor solid waste management remains the most visible threat to the reefs.

2011&2012: SOVACOOL: Benjamin K. Sovacool, Climatic Change volume 114, (2012):
This essay assesses the “Integrating Climate Change Risks into Resilient Island Planning in the Maldives” Program, or ICCR, a four-year $9.3 million adaptation project supported by the Least Developed Countries Fund, Maldivian Government and the United Nations Development Program. The essay elaborates on the types of challenges that arise as a low-income country tries to utilize international development assistance to adapt to climate change. Based primarily on a series of semi-structured research interviews with Maldivian experts, discussed benefits to the ICCR include improving physical resilience by deploying “soft” infrastructure, institutional resilience by training policymakers, and community resilience by strengthening assets. Challenges include ensuring that adaptation efforts are sufficient to reduce vulnerability, lack of coordination, and the values and attitudes of business and community leaders.

2012: UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS: THE MALDIVES, THE FLATTEST COUNTRY ON EARTH, FACES THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE MAJORITY OF ITS LAND AREA WILL BE UNDER WATER BY 2100 BECAUSE OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE SEA LEVEL RISE. The expected impacts: periodic flooding fro storm surge, scarcity of freshwater and drinking water. A sea level rise of 0.5 meters by 2100, expected for a low emission scenario, will cause the Maldives to lose 77% of the land to the sea and a rise of 1 meter by 2100 will cause the whole of the Maldives to be inundated by 2085. Many adaptation strategies are being proposed with moving to drier ground also being considered.

2016: WIKIPEDIA: Climate change severely threatens the existence of the Maldives as well as diminishing existing human capabilities on these islands. According to the World Bank, with “future sea levels projected to increase in the range of 10 to 100 CM by 2100, the entire country could be submerged“. president Gayoom, says “to the three hundred thousand inhabitants of the Maldives none of these threats compare, in magnitude and likelihood, to global climate change and consequent sea level rise.” Most people there live on small, flat, densely populated atolls that are threatened by violent storms or even the slightest sea level rise. The capital Malé is especially threatened because it is on a small, flat, extremely densely populated atoll that is surrounded by sea walls, and other barriers to protect against storms. This means the Malé atoll cannot change shape in response to rising sea levels and is increasingly reliant on expensive engineering solutions. To prepare for climate change and the sea level rise, the government has prepared a comprehensive National Adaptation Program of Action, that attempts to critically consider and alleviate many of the serious threats the Maldives faces. The Maldives have already implemented several measures to combat sea level rise including building a wall around the capital of Malé and refurbishing local infrastructure, particularly ports. The Maldives has a goal of achieving a carbon-neutral economy by 2020. Former environment minister Mohamed Aslam, says “If Maldives can do it, you can do it. It’s important to us not just to talk but to lead by example“.

2017: NEW SCIENTIST: On front line of climate change, the Maldives fights rising seas. White sand circles picked out by the sun in sparkling blue seas. The Maldives is a tropical paradise spread over almost 1200 islands as it faces rising sea levels and bleaching coral reefs that made it a poster child for climate change. Former PM Nasheed had proposed buying land elsewhere so the Maldivians can relocate but the new leader Yameen has plans to stay put and resist the rising seas with geoengineering projects by renting out islands and investing in fortification and building new islands. One of these new islands is named the City of Hope is being built on an artificial island. A state owned company pumps sand from surrounding atolls onto shallow reefs that surround the lagoon and then fortifies the new island with walls 3 metres high, higher than the highest natural island at only 2.5 metres above the sea. When finished in 2023 it will accommodate 130,000 people. Eight such islands have already been built, and three more are planned. According to the president building new islands high enough to withstand sea level rise is the way to keep the Maldivians save and all he needs is money. As a way to raise money the Maldives plans to lease an atoll of 23 islands to Saudi Arabia for 99 years for $10 billion after relocating the 4,000 inhabitants. Saudi Arabia wants to secure its oil trade routes to China and perhaps tourism and maritime commerce as well. The Maldives government is planning for 50 more tourist resorts by 2018. Environmentalists are concerned about the pace of artificial island development saying that coral islands can grow naturally as seas rise as seen in Tuvalu (Paul Kench [LINK] ) and satellite images show that some islands are growing. Those that are shrinking are doing so due to damage from shipping. And explosions meant for clearing the way for boats through the reefs are loosening the sand that is then carried away by storms, waves and streams to the deep waters. Another problem with reclamation is that by pumping sand onto the reefs, surrounding corals become covered too and die out. Maldivian environmentalists ar not happy with all this geo-engineering and seek a sustainable approach “with as little damage as possible although nothing has been done about the huge amount of trash and plastic on the beaches. The New Scientist trip to the Maldives for this story was paid for by the Maldives Government. 

2018: THE CONVERSATION : Maldives: climate change could actually help coral islands rise again – but they’re still at risk: With most of the islands in the Maldives just a metre or so above the sea level, the world’s lowest country may drown beneath rising sea levels by the end of the century. For tourists, this ranks the Maldives as a destination to visit before it disappears. For the 400,000 people who live on the islands, things are rather more serious: rising sea levels could render them climate change refugees. But, what if the land could build vertically as sea level rises? In our research published in Geophysical Research Letters, we studied five reef islands in the southern Maldives and found that they were built when sea levels were higher than they are today. The whole country is made up of small islands poking up from a submerged reef. The Maldives is a nation of around 1,200 coral reef islands. Reef islands are unique land forms in that they are formed entirely of sediments produced by organisms such as corals, molluscs and gastropods that live on coral reefs and in the surrounding waters. This reliance makes  reef islands vulnerable to climate change, particularly to sea level rise. This is of particular concern for the Maldives, built entirely on reef islands with nowhere to go.
To improve predictions of how reef islands may respond to climate change, it is important to understand how they responded to environmental change in the past. We reconstructed the island-building histories of five islands in the southern Maldives and found that the key phase of reef island building occurred between 4,200 and 1,600 years ago, when sea levels were 0.5m higher than they are today and with large wave events caused by distant storms. These waves would have had the power to break pieces of coral off the reef. Over time, these pieces of coral, as well as sand from the the reef, built up to form the islands. Climate change will mean rising sea levels and even stronger large wave events. It may therefore recreate conditions that are conducive to reef island building, which may enable these islands to keep growing vertically. This would make the islands more resilient and may even be necessary simply to keep pace with rising sea levels. Our work complements other studies which are showing that islands are in fact dynamic landforms that are able to move and adjust in response to environmental change. All this should make reef islands in the Maldives more physically resilient. However, large waves can make islands less habitable for humans. Reef island nations will have to develop infrastructure that can withstand powerful waves. However, coral reefs are also threatened by climate change, not just by rising sea levels, but also by warmer and more acidic oceans. Under climate change, we may therefore end up in an odd situation where we have the perfect conditions to build coral reef islands, but an absence of any building materials.

2020: MIT:  Environment-MIT-Oceanography: The Maldives is facing an existential threat as a result of a rising sea level induced by global climate change. MIT researchers are testing ways of harnessing nature’s forces to help maintain and rebuild threatened islands and coastlines. Some suggest building barrier walls, dredging coastlines to rebuild beaches, or building floating cities to escape the inevitable, but the search for better approaches continues. In the Maldives, an MIT team intends to combat sea-level rise by redirecting natural sand movement. Together with collaborators in the Maldives, researchers from MIT are designing, testing, building, and deploying submersible devices that, based simply on their geometry in relationship to the ocean waves and currents, promote sand accumulation in specific areas. The MIT group was invited by Invena, a group in the Maldives who had seen the researchers’ work on self-assembly and self-organization and wanted to collaborate on solutions to address sea-level rise. The resulting project has now shown promising initial results, with a foot and a half of localized sand accumulation deposited in just four months. It was incredible to see the size of a sandbar that had just formed, about 100 meters long and 20 meters wide, and the quantity of sand, over 1 meter deep, that was built completely on its own, in just a matter of months. We came to understand that these sandbars appear and disappear at different times of the year based on the forces of the ocean and underwater bathymetry.
Local grow vegetation to expand their islands or morph their shape, a natural approach to growing land mass through sand self-organization instead  of dredging sand from the deep ocean, also used for island reclamation. In the 3 months that it takes to dredge an island, we watched three different sandbars form. The amount of energy, time, money, labor, and destruction of the marine environment that is caused by dredging would be unnecessary if we could tap into the natural phenomenon of sandbar formation. By collaborating with the natural forces of the ocean we can promote the self-organization of sand structures to grow islands and rebuild beaches. Together with our local collaborators, we  deploy submersible devices that, based simply on their geometry in relationship to the ocean waves and currents, promote sand accumulation in specific areas. Our experiments are making the fabrication and installation process as simple and scalable as possible. The simplest mechanism that we are testing is a ramp-like geometry that sits on the ocean floor and rises vertically to the surface of the water. The water flows over the top of the ramp and creates turbulence on the other side, mixing the sand and water and then creates sediment transport. The sand begins to accumulate on the backside of the ramp. Our goal is to create adaptable versions of these geometries which can be easily moved, reoriented, or deployed whenever seasons change or storms are increasing. We installed our first field experiment in February 2019 and our second  in October 2019. The satellite images and drone footage give us a visual indication of sand accumulation. We have a series of coordinates that we send to our collaborators in the Maldives who then sail out to those coordinates and take depth measurements. We are now seeing roughly a half meter of new sand accumulation over an area of approximately 20 meters by 30 meters, since November. That is about 300 cubic meters of sand accumulation, in roughly four months. This is part of an initiative where we aim to continue to test these approaches in the Maldives. We plan to go back to the Maldives for two more field installations. Our long-term goal is to create a system of submersible structures that can adapt to the dynamic weather conditions to naturally grow and rebuild coastlines.

PART-4: THE RELEVANT BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Kench, Paul S., Roger F. McLean, and Scott L. Nichol. “New model of reef-island evolution: Maldives, Indian Ocean.” Geology 33.2 (2005): 145-148. A new model of reef-island evolution, based on detailed morphostratigraphic analysis and radiometric dating of three islands in South Maalhosmadulu Atoll, Maldives, is presented. Islands initially formed on a foundation of lagoonal sediments between 5500 and 4500 yr B.P. when the reef surface was as much as 2.5 m below modern sea level. Islands accumulated rapidly during the following 1500 yr, effectively reaching their current dimensions by 4000 yr B.P. Since then the high circum-island peripheral ridge has been subject to seasonal and longer-term shoreline changes, while the outer reef has grown upward, reducing the energy window and confining the islands. This new model has far-reaching implications for island stability during a period of global warming and raised sea level, which will partially reactivate the energy window, although it is not expected to inhibit upward reef growth or compromise island stability.
2. Gischler, Eberhard, J. Harold Hudson, and Andrzej Pisera. “Late Quaternary reef growth and sea level in the Maldives (Indian Ocean).” Marine Geology 250.1-2 (2008): 104-113.  Based on rotary drilling and radiometric and U-series dating, we present the first comprehensive data on Holocene reef anatomy and sea-level rise as well as nature and age of underlying Pleistocene limestone in the Maldives. Holocene reefs in Rasdhoo Atoll, central Maldives, are composed of four facies including (1) robust-branching coral facies, (2) coralline algal facies, (3) domal coral facies, and (4) detrital sand and rubble facies. Branching coral and coralline algal facies predominate the marginal reefs and domal corals and detrital facies preferentially occur in a lagoon reef. In addition, microbialite crusts are found in lower core sections of marginal reefs. Microbialites formed during the early Holocene in reef cavities. Holocene reef thickness ranges from 14.5 m to > 22 m. Reef growth started as early as 8.5 kyr BP. Marginal reefs accreted in the keep-up mode with rates of > 15 m/kyr. Rate of sea-level rise significantly slowed down from 7–6 kyr BP and subsequently gradually rose with rates < 1 m/kyr. The lagoon reef accreted in the catch-up mode with rates of around 4 m/kyr. Even though no indications of a higher than present sea level were found during this study, it is not entirely clear from the data whether the sea gradually rose to or exceeded present level in the late Holocene. Submarine cementation in Holocene reefs studied is rather weak, presumably as a consequence of high accretion-rates, i.e., short time available for consolidation. Pleistocene coral grainstone was encountered in one core at 14.5 m below present level and three U-series dates indicate deposition during marine isotope stage 5e ca. 135 kyr BP.
3. Kench, P. S., et al. “Holocene reef growth in the Maldives: evidence of a mid-Holocene sea-level highstand in the central Indian Ocean.” Geology 37.5 (2009): 455-458.  Radiometrically calibrated ages from three reef cores are used to develop a Holocene reef growth chronostratigraphy and sea-level history in the Maldives, central Indian Ocean. Last interglacial reef (U-series age 122 ± 7 ka) was encountered at 14.1 m below mean sea level. An age of ca. 8100 calibrated (cal) yr B.P. immediately overlying this Pleistocene surface records the initiation of Holocene reef growth. Massive in situ corals occur throughout the cores and the consistency of the three age-depth plots indicate that the reef grew steadily between 8100 and 6500 cal yr B.P., and at a decreasing rate for the next 2 k.y. The position of modern sea level was first achieved ca. 4500 cal yr B.P. and sea level reached at least 0.50 ± 1 m higher from 4000 to 2100 cal yr B.P. before falling to present level. Emergent fossil microatolls provide evidence of this higher sea level. Results are significant to two long-standing issues relating to Maldivian sealevel history. First, the ambiguity of a late Holocene highstand has been resolved with clear evidence of its existence reported here. Second, the uncertainty of the regional pattern of sea-level change in the central Indian Ocean has been clarified, the Maldivian results broadly agreeing with island records in the eastern, rather than western Indian Ocean. Our results provide the first field evidence confirming geophysical model projections of a highstand 4–2 k.y. ago in the central Indian Ocean, though the observed level (+0.50 ± 0.1 m) is lower than that projected.
4. \Khan, Tariq Masood Ali, et al. “Relative sea level changes in Maldives and vulnerability of land due to abnormal coastal inundation.” Marine Geodesy 25.1-2 (2010): 133-143.  Oceanic Islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans have extremely small land areas, usually less than 500 km2, with maximum height about 4 m above sea level. The Republic of Maldives is an independent island nation in the Indian Ocean south of Sri Lanka which stretches vertically in the Indian Ocean from 07° 06’N – 0° 42’S. The land area of this island country is about 300 km2, and none of Maldives’ 1190 islands has an elevation more than 3 m above sea level. In fact the Maldives has the distinction of being the flattest country on earth, making it extremely vulnerable to the effects of global warming. Of the south Asian countries, the Maldives is the most vulnerable nation, facing severe consequences as a result of global warming and sea level rise (SLR). Because of their obvious vulnerability to SLR, the Government of Maldives is very much concerned about climate change. As global warming and the related SLR is an important integrated environmental issue, the need of the hour is to monitor and assess these changes. The present article deals mainly with the analysis of the tidal and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data observed at Male and Gan stations along the Maldives coast in the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively. The objective of the analysis is to study the trends of these parameters. Trend analysis is also performed on the corresponding air temperature data of both stations. The results show that Maldives coastal sea level is rising in the same way (rising trend) as the global sea level. The mean tidal level at Male has shown an increasing trend of about 4.1 mm/year.Similarly at Gan, near the equator,it has registered a positive trend of about 3.9 mm/year.Sea level variations are the manifestations of various changes that are taking place in the Ocean-Atmosphere system. Therefore, the variations in SST and air temperature are intimately linked to sea level rise. It is found that SST and air temperature have also registered an increasing trend at both stations. The evidence of rising trends suggest that careful future monitoring of these parameters is very much required. Tropical cyclones normally do not affect the Maldives coast. However, due to its isolated location, the long fetches in association with swells generated by storms, that originated in the far south have resulted in flooding. Thus the rising rate of sea level with high waves and flat topography have increased the risk of flooding and increased the rate of erosion and alteration of beaches.
5. Becken, Susanne, J. O. H. N. Hay, and S. T. E. P. H. E. N. Espiner. “The risk of climate change for tourism in the Maldives.” Island tourism: Sustainable perspectives 8 (2011): 72. 
6. Sovacool, Benjamin K. “Expert views of climate change adaptation in the Maldives.” Climatic Change 114.2 (2012): 295-300. This essay assesses the “Integrating Climate Change Risks into Resilient Island Planning in the Maldives” Program, or ICCR, a four-year $9.3 million adaptation project supported by the Least Developed Countries Fund, Maldivian Government and the United Nations Development Program. The essay elaborates on the types of challenges that arise as a low-income country tries to utilize international development assistance to adapt to climate change. Based primarily on a series of semi-structured research interviews with Maldivian experts, discussed benefits to the ICCR include improving physical resilience by deploying “soft” infrastructure, institutional resilience by training policymakers, and community resilience by strengthening assets. Challenges include ensuring that adaptation efforts are sufficient to reduce vulnerability, lack of coordination, and the values and attitudes of business and community leaders.

THE GREAT THING ABOUT SHEEP IS THAT THEY DON’T HAVE ANY CLIMATE DENIERS AMONG THEM. SO PURE SO GOOD. IF ONLY HUMANS COULD BE LIKE THEM WE COULD TAKE CLIMATE ACTION AND SAVE THE PLANET. OH WELL!