'President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the Maldives told me that he and the Alliance of Small Island States was exploring the possibility of suing high-emitting governments if and when their countries disappeared under the waves.'Oh no the Maldives are sinking, it's all the fault of global warming and we are to blame...
The only slight problem is this, as I blogged last year:
'Nils-Axel Mörner is a former lead reviewer for the IPCC and was head of Geodynamics at Stockholm University until his retirement in 2005. Oddly he has written three times previously to the Maldives government and not received a reply hence this open letter. Here's a few extracts:
"The people of the Maldives had no problems surviving the 17th century, which was 50cm higher than now. Nor the last century, where it rose by 20cm. This bodes well for their prospects of surviving the next change.
...
Neither of those levels would pose any real problem — simply a return to the situation in the 17th and the 19th to early 20th centuries, respectively.
So why the scare-mongering? Could it be because there is money involved? If you inhabit a tiny island and can convince the world that its very existence is under threat because of the polluting policies of the West, the industrialised nations will certainly respond. The money is likely to flow in more quickly than the ocean will rise."'
I have posted a piece similar to this on Richard Black's blog, comment 180, let's see if it gets through moderation...
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