When you're only 8 feet above sea level, global warming isn't just an idea

By Matthew Schofield
mschofield@mcclatchydc.com


MAAMIGILI, Maldives

As Hussain Khallib’s boat chugs into a turquoise-colored water channel, he points at the shoreline of the approaching island and notes the thin stretch of vegetation between white sand beaches on either side. It’s never more than a few feet above the water.

“We spend a lot of time worrying about the idea of rising sea level here,” he explains. “Many fear they will go to bed one night on dry land, and wake up in the morning in water. But we know the truth is far less dramatic. We will lose our nation and our homes one grain of sand at a time.”

Khallib, 21, is one of the estimated 393,000 residents who live in Maldives, a nation of 1,200 small islands in the Indian Ocean southwest of India that is considered the world’s most at risk to rising sea levels. The United Nations has projected that Maldives, which covers a stretch of sea roughly the size of South Carolina, but with a total land mass equal to that state’s capital city, Columbia, could be effectively underwater by 2100. .......(more)

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