Underwater cabinet meeting highlights need to save Maldives

by Sean McLachlan on

The president of the Maldives and his cabinet met underwater today to urge global cuts in carbon emissions.

The Maldives are a beautiful archipelago of more than 1,000 islands in the Indian Ocean, famous for their clear waters, clean beaches, and coral reefs. But with the majority of the islands standing less than five feet (1.5 meters) above the water line, the whole country could disappear if sea levels rise. President Mohamed Nasheed has been fighting hard to keep his country from going under and has recently called for a green tax on visitors. He’s also vowed to make the Maldives the first carbon-neutral country in the world.

While underwater, President Nasheed and his cabinet signed a call for a strong climate change agreement. Written on a plastic slate, the statement calls for a 40% reduction of 1990 emissions levels and will be presented at the climate summit this December.

“We are trying to send our message to let the world know what is happening and what will happen to the Maldives if climate change isn’t checked,” said President Nasheed. “What we are trying to make people realize is that the Maldives is a frontline state. This is not merely an issue for the Maldives but for the world. If we can’t save the Maldives today, you can’t save the rest of the world tomorrow.”

The president and his ministers then signed their wetsuits, which will be auctioned off and the money used to protect local coral reefs.

Maldives President proposes green tax for tourists

by Katie Hammel on

The Maldives, an archipelago of over 1000 islands in the Indian Ocean known for their stunning beauty and expensive, luxurious resorts, aren’t exactly cheap to visit. And they aren’t about to get any cheaper. The President of the Maldives has proposed a $3 per day “green tax” on tourists.

The tax would help fund the President’s plans for fighting climate change and for making the Maldives a carbon-neutral country within the next decade. He has a vested interest in stopping global warming – the Maldives are the lowest-lying islands on the planet, with an average elevation of only 7 feet above sea level, and it is estimated that they could be completely submerged by rising sea levels within the next ten years.

With an average of 700,000 visitors, who each stay around three days, visiting the Maldives annually, the tax could provide the country with over $6 million per year for environmental initiatives. With most resorts in the Maldives costing $500 (or much more) per night, $3 per person, per day is a small price to pay to help protect this vulnerable country from the dangers of climate change.

Global warming has a reverse effect on Alaska’s state capital

by Catherine Bodry on

You’re likely used to hearing about the possibility of cities flooding as sea levels rise, a result of climate change. But in Alaska, that quirky, individualistic state, the reverse is happening – at least in one area.

In an article today from the New York Times, Cornelia Dean reports that Juneau, the only US capital not accessible by road, is actually gaining land as a result of glacial melt. Though it seems counterintuitive, the logistics work a bit like this: glaciers weigh a lot, and as they recede, their pressure eases. The land sort of bounces back, or rises – faster than the rising seas can keep up with it.

Furthermore, glacier runoff deposits sediments into the water, and the Gastineau Channel in front of downtown Juneau is so silty that at low tide it’s more of a mudflat than a channel. Where boats regularly sailed, runners now cross in the annual Mendenhall Mud Run. It’s a fun spin on the rising land, no doubt, but it belies the seriousness of the changes.

Read more about Juneau’s rising land problems here.

How global warming could change travel

by Brenda Yun on

We heard it from Al Gore in “An Inconvenient Truth,” and we’re hearing it again — this time from the World Ocean Conference 2009 that is in its third of a five-day conference, taking place in Manado, Indonesia: rising sea levels will likely displace millions of island dwellers in the next twenty years. According to two recent articles in the Conde Nast Portfolio and AFP, the the polar ice caps are melting, causing ocean levels to rise, thereby shrinking some very populated and travel-worthy islands.

Places like the Maldives, Kiribati, and Tuvalu are literally shrinking and could be completely submerged by 2050. Mount Kilimanjaro and the Swiss Alps could lose over 40% of their snow within 20 years. Perhaps most importantly, an estimated 150 million people could be displaced from their lowland homes because of significant sea level rises.

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So, what does this mean for travelers? Well, the implications are quite clear. Those of us interested in visiting the polar destinations like Greenland and Antarctica or even glacial regions threatened by shrinking glaciers should enjoy them while they’re still cold. The same goes for the shrinking islands, such as the Phillipines, and the warming waters of the Great Barrier Reef, which could lose over 90% of its live coral within 50 years.

The five-day World Ocean Conference has drawn hundreds of officials and ocean experts from 80 countries and is the prelude to December talks on a successor to the expiring Kyoto Protocol, whose aim was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2%, compared to data drawn in 1990. It has been twenty years since this Protocol and other climate initiatives have been evaluated, so it’s about time we think about being as green as possible.

The Alliance of Small Island States, the European Union, and the U.S. are all proposing greenhouse gas emission cuts of over 80% by 2050, but important developing nations such as China (who faces a very real threat to sea level rises in its overpopulated urban cities of Beijing and Shanghai) have yet to determine how much they can do in this global effort.

Jalousie Plantation resort brings solar golf carts to St Lucia

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Okay, it’s not exactly a cure for cancer, but any initiative that does cut down on fossil fuel reliance still resonates with me. So, I was pretty excited to see that the Jalousie Plantation has adopted a hybrid solar-powered golf cart to move guests around on its 192-acre property … with no carbon emissions! This is among the first of these environmentally-friendly golf carts in the Caribbean, and the goal is for this quirky little vehicle to replace the oil-dependent carts and minibuses that currently carry passengers around Jalousie.

This measure is reflective of Jalousie parent company Kor Hotel Group’s “Second Nature” program, which consists of several eco-friendly measures across its holdings. Kor’s properties are encouraged to source local produce, arts and other supplies to cut down on food-miles (or other “product-miles”) in an effort to reduce carbon emissions while contributing to economic growth in the community.

“We want to play our part at The Jalousie Plantation in supporting the environmentally-conscious initiatives of Kor and the new hybrid solar-powered golf cart is seen as a first step in helping us to do this,” Jalousie’s General Manager, Rodrigo Caldeira said.

The golf cart has a photovoltaic cell on its roof, which takes St Lucia sunshine and turns it into the electricity that makes the cart move. In the event of rain, the cart can be plugged into an electrical outlet to have its battery charged.

“Eventually all of the vehicles we use at Jalousie will be gasoline-free and this will help us to lessen our emissions of greenhouse gases which are having a tremendous impact on eco-systems around the world and contributing to climatic change and global warming,” Caldeira said. “The new cart also significantly reduces noise pollution and makes a great contribution in our efforts to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and in ensuring our operations are environmentally sustainable.”