Help! The Maldives Is Sinking!

Al Gore does it again!

Why does he keep bringing out points and 'science' that is repeatedly refuted, like his infamous and now totally disputed and 'dustbin of history fame' global warming hockey stick graph.

Al Gore, in a public argument with well known Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) refuter Bjorn Lomberg, stated:

"The scientific community has gone through this chapter and verse. We have long since passed the time when should pretend that this is a 'on the one hand, on the other hand' issue."..."Its not a matter of theory or conjecture"

He gave the example of the island nation of the Maldives having added to their budget 'Funds to buy a new nation'

Here is the link:

http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/03/05/a-heated-exchange-al-gore-confronts-his-critics/

Wow, could that be true? I remember visiting the Maldives in the 1990's and being told that everything I saw there would be under the sea in 20 years time. I really felt the tragedy. They are a friendly and nice people. The scenery is stunningly beautiful and is indeed very low lying. The capital of Male looks like a chunk of any 3rd world city, improbably plopped, nearly perfectly square, into a vast turquoise blue ocean. The airport is nothing but the runway and ocean. Apparently they just poured a lot of concrete onto a shallow reef to build it.

Here is a link to Google Maps of Maldives, very much above water!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=male+maldives&sll=33.004038,-117.179408&sspn=0.008836,0.016007&ie=UTF8&ll=4.182672,73.523941&spn=0.042031,0.06403&t=h&z=14

The odd thing, is that its still there. Its not sinking. In fact, as if mother nature is teasing all those AGMers, the water level around the Maldives is dropping!!

Here is a link to a PDF file, peer reviewed, researched and documented, scientific paper by highly qualified researchers showing the water levels around the Maldives dropping!!

http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Publications/PDF_Papers/MornerEtAl2004.pdf

In doing research before writing this, I found out that Stephen Schneider, a well respected professor at Stanford, is quite the outspoken proponent of AGW. Oddly, it was his personal website where I found the above link, refuting Al Gore's implications about the Maldives!

I have zero evidence and this is pure speculation, but what he and his wife do, cast doubt on his credibility as a scientist. Not that he isn't a great scientist, just that it casts doubt. Its because his wife, Terry Root, is a senior fellow at the Center for Environmental Science and Policy Institute. They also push their co-written book on both of their websites. Their entire income, credibility, everything, is tied up in the politics of AGW, which have become quite convoluted indeed. Again I don't wish to demean either, who are complete strangers to me, its just that it gives ample ammunition to anyone who wants to eliminate their viewpoint about how highly invested they are personally in AGW being true.

Also in doing research I kept finding leads ending up nowhere. What do I mean? Let me give you one example. In trying to find out the actual budget allocated by the Maldives, I followed link after link, and ended up on a blog which claimed to name the first 'environmental refugees caused by global warming.' Wow! If that was true, then I might have a real change of heart about this matter. So I was obliged to follow the links and try to get the facts. The facts are, three web pages later, on a page at www.unep.org, quoting a person familiar with the case of Tegua in the island chain of Vanuatu, I find this quote by Taito Nakalevu, the Climate Change Adaptation Officer who got funding from the Canadian government for the relocation effort:

"We are seeing king tides across the region flooding islands. These are normal events, but it is the frequency that is abnormal and a threat to livlihoods."

I underlined the 'These are normal events' to point out that this is not being caused by rising sea levels! These are normal events means too many people overbuilt too close to the sea and normal tides are changing the coastline. This is the case EVERYWHERE sand beaches exist in the world! Its not caused by global warming or rising sea levels. Its cause by humans thinking that the climate never changes over time. Its caused by humans thinking that a small plot of sand will never change over the years from the action of tides and waves. So at the root, its a lie, created to get international funding to relocate a village. Every website that links to this one repeats that and the truth becomes ever more distant.

Believe me, if I thought I was wrong about this, I would issue an immediate mea culpa and stand corrected. I did happen to be on the other side of the issue, having bought up what Al Gore said. I read his book growing up, I bought many copies of his documentary to pass out to friends. But being interested in science, and ultimately finding out there was another side to this, I read it. And learned. Compared the facts. And decided that the science 'proving' AGM is thin indeed. Its speculation and computer models. As a computer programmer I know how modeling works. You only get out what you put in. Modeling did not work in the financial markets and they will prove to be horribly wrong in environmental areas too. I am certain of that.

More links!

Here is a link to the budget of the Maldives.

http://www.presidencymaldives.gov.mv/downloads/menifesto-en.pdf

Where is the entry for "buying a new nation" as Al Gore claimed? The truth is, there is none. His claim came from a speech by a political contender during an election season, the few sentences never amounted to any action in any way. Besides which country do you know of that would sell off part of its land to make way for another country? If that was ever the case, then India and Pakistan would have long solved their border dispute, and the Singhalese majority of Sri Lanka would have sold the Tamils their own homeland (well actually the Tamils already have a homeland in a province of India a mere 100 miles or so away, but no, they wanted, demanded a homeland on the island of Sri Lanka, after only being there a few hundred years. Go figure). So anyways, buying a homeland DOES NOT WORK. And I cite India and Sri Lanka and their disputes for a very specific reason. Because the politician in question mentioned he was looking at land in India and Sri Lanka. Hahahaha - did anyone tell him how absurd such a statement was? Did anyone tell Al Gore the context of the quote? I think not because Al Gore is a shoot first ask questions later sort of guy.

Anyhow - Al Gore is a big fat liar, or just a purely confused individual. I rest my case.

** Edit Dated 11-16-2009 **

After reading about a publicity stunt where the leaders of the Maldives were going to hold a cabinet session underwater, to highlight their plight of rising sea levels (despite incontrovertible evidence that sea levels are dropping in the Indian Ocean - see links above), I found out that a document that I had linked to, which used to show the proposed budget of the incoming government of the maldives has been replaced.  The new document is flashier, more politically correct, and still doesn't mention anything about the islands sinking.  Lots of talk about developing resorts on uninhabited islands.  Why do that if they were sinking?  Hmm.  Unless of course they all know they aren't.

So - a publicity stunt to get western guilt stoked up to get more donations of various types from  the legions of kool-aid global warming drinkers.  I've searched everywhere to find the original PDF showing the proposed budget (without any reference to 'buying a new country' as Al Gore stated).