Give Us Your Money, Says Maldives President
By Paul Homewood
h/t Patsy Lacey
From the Guardian:
For the Maldives, the existential threat of the climate crisis, particularly sea level rise, has been a reality we have grappled with for decades. In 1989, recognising the urgency of our situation, with our islands standing just one metre above sea level, we brought this issue to the global stage for the first time.
This early recognition of our vulnerability sparked a national transformation as we embarked on proactive climate resilience and adaptation measures. Thirty-five years later, has the rest of the world truly been listening? If you look at how the world’s reaction to the climate crisis is funded, the answer is clearly “no”.
For decades, Small Island Developing States (Sids) like the Maldives have been bearing the brunt of global warming with minimal support. The Maldives is liable for just 0.003% of global emissions, but is one of the first countries to endure the existential consequences of the climate crisis. Wealthier nations have a moral responsibility to communities like ours. Yet Sids are given only about 14% of the finance that the least developed countries receive.
The problem is that the current global financial architecture is outdated and not fit for purpose: its use of legacy metrics such as gross national income (GNI) and gross domestic product (GDP) skews our economic reality, painting Sids as wealthier than we are, barring us from critical funding opportunities. And, thanks to the Maldives’ healthy tourism industry, we are ranked as an emerging economy and therefore shut out…………………………………………………………….
I think you can guess the rest of the “give us your money” appeal from the Maldives President.
But could this be the same Maldives that are busy with major plans to expand their main airport?
In a significant development for the Maldives’ aviation sector, President Mohamed Muizzu has laid out an ambitious vision for the future of Velana International Airport (VIA).
The project’s inauguration, held at the prestigious Dharubaaruge venue in the capital city of Male, marked a historic chapter for the Maldives.
The initial phase of VIA’s development is well underway, culminating in the launch of a state-of-the-art terminal later this year, capable of accommodating a staggering 7.3 million passengers.
President Muizzu’s vision, however, transcends the immediate future, with a bold target set at welcoming 25 million passengers over the next two decades.
And surely it cannot be the President Muizzu, who has plans for his airport to handle 25 million passengers a year in twenty years time?
Surely not, because what will all these tourists do when the islands are all under water?
And could this be the same Maldives that have benefitted enormously from all of those fossil fuelled tourist flights in recent years?
You only have to look at how GDP fell through the floor during the 2020 lockdowns. Would Mr Muizzi really like those days to return permanently?
It is largely because of this tourist boom that the Maldives population has increased fivefold since the 1960s.
According to Wikipedia, “In the early 1970s, the Maldives was one of the world’s 20 poorest countries”. It is only tourism which has lifted the economy. But maybe Mr Muizzi would like his half million inhabitants to return to poverty, which they inevitably will if we all give up fossil fuels and air travel, as the Guardian would like. And heaven knows how the islands could cope with half a million people, with an economy relying largely on fishing, as it did in the 1960s.
Of course, these silly sea level scares are not new. In 1988 the Maldives government was predicting that the whole country would be submerged by now:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/102074798
And no doubt they will be issuing the same warnings/demands for money in another thirty years time!
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
But maybe Mr Muizzi would like his half million inhabitants to return to poverty
No. They die without fossil fuels.
Dont live on a bleedin’ sandbar then.
Look at their capital on Google Earth.
4°10’24.79″ N 73°30’33.48″ E
How are they going to get food without fossil fuels?
They aren’t.
President Muizzu is a first class scammer. And the decadence! Attacking that which keeps him alive.
China finances the Maldives and controls them through the debt they owe. This is just more Chinese propaganda.
You can’t blame them for trying to squeeze more cash from the gullible idiots in the West as they look to dominate the World.
He’s not the first President of the Maldives to ask/demand money.
This made global headlines
On 17 October 2009 President Mohammed Nasheed and 13 government officials held an underwater cabinet meeting in Girifushi to call international attention to the threat of global warming on the island nation.
Has anything happened to the Maldives in the last 15 years?
Yes, the islands have grown.
It must be Allah’s will.
Or healthy reefs producing sediment.
Lots more airports and tourist resorts. !
Firstly someone needs to show this money grabbing cretin sea level curves for the past 10,000 years and show him that there has been no change at all in the rate of rise of the oceans around the world during since the beginning of the 20th Century.
Secondly this money grabbing cretin needs to be educated to the fact that an island 1metre above sea level EVEN with a stable sea level is not a good place to live. If your ancestors chose to live there then blame them, not me!
Thirdly and most importantly, someone needs to educate this money grabbing cretin as to what an atoll is. It is a coral reef formed on an extinct and planed off oceanic volcano. Such volcanoes form above stationary hotspots which exist in the Mantle below MOVING oceanic crust. When the hotspot is active the plate locally rises and a volcano forms and emerges above sea level. All is fine until the inevitable occurs as the plate moves away from the hotspot. The volcano becomes inactive then the fun starts. Firstly the volcano is quickly eroded away and planed off at sea level. Secondly because there is no hotspot, the upwards flexed plate and the volcano sink. Next because the upper planed off surfaceis in the photic zone, corals form on it. Then we get a fight between the coral growing up towards the sun and the planed off volcano sinking. When the coral grows too quickly it become subaerially exposed and gets sunburn and dies and oh look, a common source of bleaching the climate liars omit to mention.
Anyway the point is, there is only one winner and that is the volcano which is on a one way journey down. The Hawaiian Islands are a chain of such “hot spot” derived oceanic volcanos. At least one extinct volcano at the end of the chain is now a guyot (a drowned atoll) hundreds of metres below the surface…..with guess what…. fossilized coral growth on it.
My point is that this is all known science. It is inexcusable that the people encouraging this cretin either do not know or wilfully pretend not to know.
In simple terms President Muizzi is either being wilfully misleading or is such an ignorant human being that he is allowing himself to be used. Either way he is a willing party to the perpetration of a FRAUD.
As an aside…. “The Maldives is liable for just 0.003% of global emissions, but is one of the first countries to endure the existential consequences of the climate crisis. Wealthier nations have a moral responsibility to communities like ours“.
Given that the UK only contributes about 1% does the same bleating rule not apply to us also? GIVE US THE MONEY. Notice……they want to scam wealthy countries NOT the high CO2 emitters. Being wealthy does not automatically make a country a big CO2 emitter and I think this in a nutshell shows the marxist roots of this whole farrago. If they care about CO2 then go after the emitters but no…..they just want to redistribute money from countries who have carefully managed their mature economies and hand it over to the incompetents, countries whose economies have been run badly and are using the climate fraud to scam money from more competently run countries. So he want US to pay for their incompetence and also their historical selection of totally unsuitable places to settle.
I am done!
Well said!
I wonder if that 0.003% includes all the CO2 generated by tourists (which they rely on) flying or cruising to the island?
It is simply a huge and growing crock of sh1t with every worthless useless person finding a place to put their noses in the trough. Society is being inverted. Left is right, up is down and JFK shot himself.
A complete lack of scientific rigor as well as critical thinking is the norm in the marxist promoted Klymutt Krythith. That this occurs is not a mistake because every single one of their claims falls for a lack of statistically significant empirical data to support them. Therefore it has become now about feelings not facts and “my truth”. Every dullard is now a Klymutt expert as long as they spout the doctrine.
The PC Wokeykokey lympics would award the gold medal to the guy/woman/thing which came last and the winner would have to apologise.
36 years ago, the ex-sperts told us the Maldives would disappear in 30 yrs
since then the population has trebled & the islands have expanded in area
https://climatechangedispatch.com/97-of-186-maldives-island-coasts-have-grown-or-not-changed-since-2005/
Two words for this guy – and the second one is “off”. Same two words for the Grauniad.
Tourism has been a godsend for Maldives and they should just be grateful and and get on with it . .
Here is a constructive idea!! Go to the article and it states “Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.“
So I just have given them my succinct response (in under 300 words) so why not everyone else do the same. Let the prats know what you think of them and their article as politely or impolitely as you fancy. They have asked after all. Hey it’s the Graun, they are stupid enough to print anything so one of us might get lucky.
Sea Level and Length of Day
Look at Leap Second Data. Net Sea Level went down since 1972 when the Atomic Clock was put in service as a time standard. A rising sea level would slow the earth crust spin rate and more and more leap seconds would have been needed every year.
http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp50/leapsecond.cfm
Leap Seconds are being added less frequently. This does show that the earth’s crust is rotating faster. This means the inertia of earth has decreased due to the snowfall and ice sequestering that we have had since 1972 which moved water from the low latitude oceans to ice on high latitudes, polar regions. This means that the ice volume at both poles and high latitudes has increased and that means the oceans have dropped and not risen.
This is proof that the sea level, overall, is lower than it was in 1972 when the Atomic Clock was put into service measuring time most accurately. There were three more leap seconds added between December 2011 to December 2016 and none since 2016, this is more than seven more years with no added leap second and none expected.
Sea Level is hard to measure and hard to average with daily tides and various high and low atmosphere pressure regions over oceans that vary over short- and long-term time periods, while time and Length of Day is measured constantly to a tiny fraction of a second.
Summary: Overall, the net Sea Level went down since 1972 and has been steady since 2016, watch Length of day for the next change. If no leap seconds are added, there has been no sea level rise.
Haven’t they got enough airports already ??
I consider myself reasonably well travelled (chosen and paid for by Yours Truly) but have never visited the Maldives and have zero intentions of ever travelling there. The country is divided into Malé where the majority of Maldivians live, a few other islands plus the “Resort” islands.
Tourists are not encouraged to visit the non-Resort islands and are advised NOT to visit Malé because of serious terrorist risks, including from Daesh.
I am sure that people who want to look at fish or to stay in sybaritic and expensive resorts find it appealing, although even Resorts seem to expect bathers to cover from elbows to knees, even old married couples are not expected to hold hands where Maldivians are present. The numerous “Fridays” who bring you drinks etc are mostly imported from “South Asia” and non adherents of the Religion of Peace are unlikely to be welcome.
In addition to non-prescription drugs, pork products and bibles are proscribed.
Education is widely restricted to reading the Koran.
Energy use is almost entirely based on imported oil, Resorts rely mainly on small diesel generator sets.
If there is anything much older than twenty years and of any cultural significance, it must be in Malé and seems not to be advertised.
There are some fabulous destinations in the Indian Ocean. Why anyone would choose a posh sh#thole for a holiday, I struggle to imagine.
Just ask the question, if they believed wholeheartedly in the ‘80’s that the country on had 20-40yrs left, why did they not just move to a location that was “higher” above the predicted sea level, or are they saying that like 99.99999% of climate predictions they were wrong then, wrong today and wrong tomorrow- but will expect the West to throw a chunk of cash just in case it does happen.
First of all you have to look at the source of the information.. The “Guardian” ffs! .. THE GLOBAL BOILING cheer leader. An ideology based rag that is kept financially afloat by globalist cash infusions, to indoctrinate the feeble minded.
Anything after that is not worth reading, BUT. The Maldives have actually grown in land area since the Cop meeting was held there. IT IS NOT SINKING!
And even if it was, it’s their choice to live there, it is not therefor anyone else’s responsibility but their own! When did any world issue , become MY FINANCIAL responsibility to fix. Try the Muslim world first, since they are 98.69% Muslim! …Or is that too much to ask ?
We had one of those presidents outside our local supermarket for a week or two sitting looking stupid. They were ignored, they went away
it’s the population growth that is the horror. Crash coming.
From the article:
‘We recently paused work on crucial development projects due to severe coral bleaching brought on by global heating.’
Outright lie. Maldives coral has indeed been through some mass bleaching events – it recovered, as most bleached coral does. What’s actually killing the coral is development; they’ve built at least 13 – THIRTEEN!! – new airports over the last decade!
The Maldives has seen a huge amount of investment from China (belt and road), Saudi Arabia and India. Its economy is growing, its islands are not sinking, its resorts are expanding.
Oh, and there is no climate crisis.
CK
I found this link to Nils-Axel Mörner in a surprising place, but clearly no-one listened:
Select Committee on Economic Affairs 2005
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldselect/ldeconaf/12/12we18.htm
Memorandum by Professor Nils-Axel Mörner, Head of Paleogeophysics & Geodynamics, Stockholm University, Sweden President, (1999-2003) of the INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution, Leader of the Maldives Sea Level Project
On the Maldives specifically:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279432868_The_Maldives_A_Measure_of_Sea_Level_Changes_and_Sea_Level_Ethics 2011
Sea level changes and coastal evolution launched an international sea level project in Maldives, partly because this is an area, where multiple sea level parameters interact and partly because this was a key area for the proposed sea level rise as a function of global warming. On the expedition by the sea level scientist, significant evidence was found that there is a rapid drop in the sea level in Maldives. On island after island, a recent redeposition of sand graded to a lower level than previously is observed. The fact that sea level fell by 20 cm in the 1970s implies that one got a fresh zero-level to explore for possible traces of movements. Observational facts do not verify the story of a rapidly rising sea level in the Maldives. On the contrary, stability in sea level is well documented for the last 30-40 years.
What are they going to do with the money? Build a trailer park on Cocos Island? He just wants money. Cos reasons.
BTW, ‘Sids’ is a horrible word in the English speaking world; he needs a different acronym.
And yet…
”Scientists at the University of Auckland found atolls in the Pacific nations of Marshall Islands and Kiribati, as well as the Maldives archipelago in the Indian Ocean, have grown up to 8 per cent in size over the past six decades despite sea level rise.
They say their research could help climate-vulnerable nations adapt to global warming in the future.
The scientists used satellite images of islands as well as on-the-ground analysis to track the changes.”
Is this the same clown who in 2009 conducted a cabinet meeting under water to try and extract compensation from the US for ‘flooding’ his islands?
If so the late Prof Nils Axel Morner had done a comprehensive field study of the Islands showing that the sea level around the island had fallen in recent decades and in the long term had remained stable. The Prime minster had this study at the time.