Bowermaster’s Adventures: Welcome to the Maldives

by Jon Bowermaster on

The last time I was in the island nation of the Maldives – nearly 400,000 people scattered among 1,200 tiny islands running south for a thousand miles off the tips of Sri Lanka and India – the place was on edge. It was early in 2005 and the tsunami waves had rushed over the islands just a few weeks before. Fortunately for the Maldives a combination of deep channels running between islands and the sizable coral reefs that surround many of them prevented the giant wave from sweeping its entire population into the sea. Only about 100 people were killed, far fewer than drowned on the coast of Somalia hundreds of miles further west.

I came to report on the post-tsunami impacts for the New York Times and as I wandered among the homes badly cracked by the wave and saw decades-old garbage dumps swept into the sea by waters that rushed over the islands – which rise less than six feet above sea level – everyone was talking about the possibility of another such incident. “What can we do to prevent the next wave from taking us all,” was the collective concern. “What if there is a second wave coming?”

Today I’m back for a couple weeks of scouting – we’ll shoot a documentary film here later in the year – and the subject has changed. No one is talking about tsunami waves, but everyone is talking about rising sea levels. Both are obviously legitimate concerns in a place where all of life lives just a couple feet above the sea. Talk is heightened by a variety of recent reports that sea level rise around the globe is now anticipated to come faster, reach higher … and the fact that the Maldives new president, Mohamed Nasheen, is talking louder than any elected official in the world about the need to do anything we can to slow the seas from rising. He obviously has a vested interest.
As I flew into the Maldives, President Nasheen was going public with plans to make the Maldives the first country in the nation to go “carbon neutral” by 2010. Leading by example, he hopes to wean his country – tourism is its biggest economy – away from fossil fuels and towards a mix of wind turbines, solar panels and coconut-burning back-up generators. He is not the first president to gamble on an eco-friendly policy to help promote eco-tourism, but his case may be the direst. If sea levels rise as now predicted – three feet by 2100 – his people will soon have to seriously concentrate on finding a new home (Nasheen’s predecessor talked with Australia about moving his people there; Nasheen has suggested he will look into some kind of land-for-fishing-rights swap with India or Pakistan …).

I’ll be moving around the Maldives a bit during these next two weeks, by boat and float plane, and expect to hear more from the people about their hopes and plans for the coming decades. A first sign of life here just feet above sea level: My room came complete with a life jacket … just in case.

Five More Places To See Before They Are Changed Forever

by Kraig Becker on

Last week we posted a story from CNN.com that named five places to see before climate changed altered them forever. The destinations that made their list included the Great Barrier Reef, the city of New Orleans, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, the Alpine Glaciers in Switzerland, and the Amazon Rain Forest in Brazil. Here are five more amazing places that you should see before they are altered forever as well.

1. Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa, and the glacier at its summit has become the stuff of legend, thanks to Earnest Hemingway’s famous book. The mountain sits just three degrees off the equator, making it even more amazing that snows are present there. But with temperatures on the rise across the planet, the glaciers are retreating at a steady rate, and scientists now believe that they could be completely gone in as little as a decade. Those wanting to see the Snows of Kilimanjaro should make the trek to the summit soon.

2. Maldives, Indian Ocean
More than 1200 tiny islands make up the Republic of Maldives, located off the southwest coast of India, but the entire country is being threatened by the rising levels of the ocean thanks to the melting polar icecaps. It is estimated that by the end of this century, more than 80% of the islands that make up the archipelago will be submerged under water, considerably changing nature of the place. Steps are being taken to save the more populated areas, but much of the country will simply cease to exist in the years ahead.3. The Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
The Annapurna Circuit is considered one of the greatest hikes in the world. It is a 15+ day trek through the HImalaya amongst some of the tallest mountains in the world, with amazing scenery at every turn. With quaint villages found every few hours along the trail, trekkers can spend the night in traditional tea houses, and will always have easy access to food and drink. But the area is being changed forever, and not by climate change, but modernization instead. A new road in the area will alter the landscape both physically and culturally, irrevocably chaning this legendary place forever. The road will be completed by the end of 2010, and much of the charm and spirit of the trail will be gone forever.

4. The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
The Galapagos are another amazing group of islands, this time found 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador. These islands are home to a dizzying number of different species of plants and animals, some that can be found nowhere else. This has made it a hot tourist destination in recent years with visitors flocking to the Galapagos to take in the unique flora and fauna. But it isn’t the tourists visiting the islands that threatens this fragile place, but instead, the growing population of permanent residents, which has grown at an alarming rate over the past decade. This over population, of a place not designed to support so much human life, is a direct threat to the ecosystem there, and could change the place forever, and very soon.

5. Lake Baikal, Russia
The worlds largest, and deepest, freshwater lake, Baikal, has only just begun to appear on the radar for most travelers. At its deepest point, it reaches 5730 feet below the surface, and those depths have never been completely explored. The lake is home to more than 1700 species of plants and animals, including the fresh water seal, the majority of which can’t be found anywhere else on Earth. Due to its size, Lake Baikal was expected to be resistant to climate change, but studies show that it is already warming, and those temperature changes will also change the landscape in the area, threatening the life of plants and animals that inhabit the remote region of Siberia.

The Maldives, where tourists and extremists mingle

by Iva Skoch on

As for anyone who likes to dive, the Maldives have been high on my list for years. I have heard that virtually all of the 1200 coral islands are magnificent and the diving incredible. I haven’t been able to swing a trip there yet, but I am thinking I should do so very soon.

This week’s The Economist article “Sea, Sun and Jihad” talks about the rising tendency of Islamic extremism in The Maldives, the richest country in South Asia in terms of GDP per capita. In January, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was rescued from a knife attack when visiting one of the islands. Last September, terrorists detonated a bomb in the capital Male, injuring 12 tourists. The Maldives government says that there is no evidence of international terrorism. Instead, it blames homegrown terrorists. Is that better, I wonder?

The attempts to impose a state-sponsored moderate Islam have no been successful. The Economist is saying that it is the political uncertainty of the Maldives that is providing a space in which Islamist extremism can grown. The country’s first multi-party election is due this year. Let’s hope things get better.

Boy Scout thwarts attempted assassination of Maldives’ president

by Aaron Hotfelder on

On Tuesday, a 15-year-old boy from the Maldives prevented a would-be assassin from stabbing the country’s president during a stop in the north of the archipelago. The boy, Mohammed Jaisham Ibrahim, dressed in full Boy Scout uniform, was waiting to shake the hand of the president, Maumoon Gayoom, as he greeted a crowd.

Suddenly an attacker with a knife wrapped in the Maldivian flag shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”) before lunging at the president. The Boy Scout saw what was happening, and reached out to stop the attacker when his hand was injured by the knife. In doing this, the boy saved the president’s life, but did manage to splatter some blood on the president’s shirt. The boy has promised to pay for the dry cleaning. (Only kidding.)

Newspapers throughout the country praised the boy’s courage and heroism. One paper had the headline: “Jaisham our national hero saves the president.”

That is going to be one bad-ass merit badge.

More coverage here and here.

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Undersea Eatery

by Erik Olsen on

I caught news about this cool restaurant in the Maldives at first over at this blog, and I was getting all giddy over the post heralding a “all new undersea restaurant”. Then I realized that the blog post was dated in 2005, so I had to rewrite things.

But I am still going to post about the restaurant because I have to say it’s really cool. I literally just left the Atlanta Aquarium and was blown away by some of the huge walk-in aquariums. Whale sharks swam overhead! But to sit and have dinner, perhaps a lightly baked fish, with the ocean and sea life overhead, well, that’d be great. Not to mention how cool to be in the Maldives, said to be the location of some of the best diving on the globe. So if you’re planning a trip to these islands before they disappear under the waves due to global warming, check out the Ithaa Undersea Restaurant, and then let us know what you think.