Sinking States
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Description
In May 2009 the New York Times Magazine published an article about the efforts of the president of the Maldives to deal with the threats that climate change represents to his country (Schmidle 2009). These threats are serious. Like other small island states around the world, the Maldives may disappear because of the rise in sea levels due to climate change. Facing the possible submergence of most of the country’s land mass, President Mohamed Nasheed is not only trying to encourage leading greenhouse gas emitters such as the United States to reduce their emissions, but also is beginning to plan for the possibility that the residents of his country will have to relocate. The article reported that the president has “proposed moving all 300,000 Maldivians to safer territory, he named India, Sri Lanka and Australia as possible destinations and described a plan that would use tourism revenues from the present to establish a sovereign wealth fund with which he could buy a new country—or at least part of one—in the future” (Schmidle 2009, 40). At least one and possibly two other small island states also are seeking ways to resettle their residents because they similarly fear losing their territory to sea-level rise.
Source Publication
Property in Land and Other Resources
Source Editors/Authors
Daniel H. Cole, Elinor Ostrom
Publication Date
2012
Recommended Citation
Wyman, Katrina M., "Sinking States" (2012). Faculty Chapters. 1470.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1470
