Dutch government approves CO2 storage below town

NRC International, By the Associated Press, 19 November 2009 09:10

The Dutch government approved a pilot project Wednesday to pump carbon dioxide into depleted gas fields beneath a town of 43,000 people as a way of reducing emissions blamed for global warming.

Residents of Barendrecht, a suburb 18 kilometres from Rotterdam, fiercely oppose the plan and the local municipality immediately said it would launch legal proceedings to prevent it. "The cabinet is blind to the concerns ofBarendrecht residents," city executive Simon Zuurbier said in a statement that accused the government of "allowing itself to be held hostage by Shell."

The ministries of environment and economic affairs said Royal Dutch Shell will pump about 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the underground chamber more than 2kilometres beneath the suburb.

The government estimates there is room to store 10 million tons in two depleted gas fields under Barendrecht. It will closely monitor the first project before considering using the second field for storage.

It is the first scheme of its kind in the Netherlands, although a dozen other projects are under way across Europe to store carbon under ground, mainly from coal-fired power stations.

That would allow countries that have lots of coal, such as China and the United States, to cut emissions while using the cheap but polluting fossil fuel.

If it proves economical, the technology would buy the world time in the fight against global warming by reducing emissions until cleaner energy sources can be developed – and help the European Union keep promises to reduce greenhouse gas emission by up to 95 percent by 2050.

Group says electric car is U.S. oil addiction cure

Reuters, by Tom Doggett, Mon Nov 16, 2009 10:34am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A coalition of energy companies, automakers and shipping firms unveiled on Monday their cure for America's oil addiction -- electric vehicles.

The group, the Electrification Coalition, aims to get 75 percent of miles driven fueled by electricity by 2040, almost turning the gasoline pump into a historic roadside marker.

The change is necessary as it is too risky for the United States to import more than 65 percent of its crude oil needs, the coalition argued. As well, more than half of the world's oil supplies must pass through vulnerable maritime passageways such as the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Qatar.

"The risk of a sudden and prolonged interruption to steady world oil supplies looms over the U.S. and world economies," it said.

Robbie Diamond, the group's president, said electricity can be generated within the United States from a variety of sources, including coal, natural gas, wind and solar.

"So it's diverse. It's domestic and it's much more stable," Diamond told Reuters in an interview.

As result, the group, backed by the likes of Nissan Motor Co and FedEx, said "it's conceivable that U.S. oil imports could effectively be reduced to zero."

To reach its goal, the coalition said the number of vehicles that run on electricity will have to jump from 1.3 million today to 250 million over the next three decades.

Diamond acknowledged that the numbers are "aggressive" and the only way to get more electric vehicles on the road and the infrastructure in place to fuel them is with government incentives.

Instead of going nationwide all at once, the government should target what Diamond calls "electricity ecosystems," comprising a handful of large cities.

The communities would be chosen on a competitive basis, with the winning cities demonstrating support for electric vehicles from large employers and state and local governments.

Each chosen area would have 50,000 to 100,000 electric vehicles by 2013, according the group

"You'll drive consumer acceptance as they see large-scale penetration in American cities, in these select ecosystems around the country," Diamond said.

Many energy experts are already worried about the reliability of the aging U.S. electric grid. But the coalition said having so many vehicles run on electricity will not be a drain as most consumers would recharge their cars overnight, when power demand is not as high.

The grid will still need increased investment to meet growing electricity demand, the groups said. But it points out that the power sector's infrastructure of generation, transmission and distribution, is in place.

Electric-run cars also produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline-fueled vehicles, which would help fight global warming.

(Reporting by Tom Doggett)

Brazil and France in climate deal

BBC News

Brazil aims to cut emissions by slowing Amazon deforestation

Brazil and France have agreed a common position on fighting global warming before next month's UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.

They will pursue the goal of reducing industrialised nations' emissions to 50% below 1990 levels by 2050.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced the move in Paris.

It comes days after Britain said it was highly unlikely that a legally binding climate treaty can be agreed this year.

The climate conference, in the Danish capital from 7 to 18 December, aims to create a successor to the 1997 Kyoto treaty limiting carbon emissions.

But British Climate Secretary Ed Miliband said only a political deal was likely.

Developing countries reacted with frustration and disappointment to his comments.

Negotiations so far have been clouded by disputes between rich and developing nations, particularly about who will be financing a new climate deal.

Last week, finance ministers from G20 countries said they "recognised the need to increase significantly and urgently the scale and predictability of finance" and "that finance will play an important role in the delivery of the outcome at Copenhagen".

But on new ideas on how to raise money and manage it - and of new commitments - there was nothing, the BBC's environment correspondent Richard Black says.

'Climate bible'

At a news conference in Paris, Mr Sarkozy praised Brazil for being "the first developing country to put its proposals on the table", and urged on other nations to follow its example going into the Copenhagen conference.

President Lula said the document he had signed with Mr Sarkozy was "more than a declaration of intent, it is a climate bible".

It comes after Brazil said it aimed to cut its carbon emissions by at least 36% by the year 2020.

Amid the ongoing deadlock in negotiations preceding the conference, both presidents said they would attend the Copenhagen summit, and urged the United States and China to get behind strong measures.

The two leaders said they would try to drum up wider support for their initiative before the meeting.

Related Articles:

Apec leaders drop climate target

Where countries stand on Copenhagen

Brazil offers to cut its carbon emissions by 36% by 2020

Brazil and Indonesia Using Eyes in the Sky To Safeguard Rainforests

The business of climate: A look to technology

By Kevin Voigt, CNN, November 14, 2009

Singapore (CNN) -- Tim Flannery believes the future peace and stability of the world rides on action at next month's United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

"Really, Copenhagen is really a question between peace and prosperity versus war and chaos," Flannery, chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council, told delegates at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit on Saturday. "Food security, water security, mass migration and political instability" are at risk if the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere isn't mitigated, he said.

Bjorn Lomborg, director of the similarly named Copenhagen Consensus Center, has a very different view -- not about the potential consequences of climate change, but about the "scary stories" approach of Flannery and others. He says the "end of days" approach is ineffective because the projections of potential damage so widely vary -- with ocean levels this century projected to rise anywhere from 18 centimeters to six meters.

"Panic is a pretty poor way to respond, which results in poor policies which don't get enacted," Lomborg told APEC delegates. "If you make the wrong policy decisions, you don't fix the problem and you waste much money."

Flannery, author of "The Weather Makers," said that climate models show that 80 percent chance in the next 100 years will be "moderate to severe," whereas there is a 10 percent chance on either end that "nothing will happen" or there will be "catastrophic consequences."

"To quote Rupert Murdoch, 'You've got to give the planet the benefit of the doubt'," Flannery said.

He argues that the opportunity for businesses and investors to get on the ground floor of new green technology is now.

"Some may want to wait for the discount factor (of investing in established technology) but I liken it to being told you have five years to live ... do you buy the medicine now, or do you wait four years for the price of the medicine to go down?" Flannery said.

"Business is the entity that is going to do much of the heavy lifting toward a clean energy environment," Flannery said.

Lomborg, author of the book "Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming," believes the cap-and-trade approach favored by Flannery and others is doomed to failure.

Under this plan, governments cap total emissions and require pricey permits and hefty fines for emissions. Industry finds ways to reduce emissions to decrease costs and with leftover polluting allocations sell to the highest bidder on the open market.

Lomborg doesn't believe cap-and-trade will work because of the past failures of agreements in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and in Kyoto in 1997, and predicts "accounting tricks" will ultimately hobble its effectiveness.

Lomborg said his group had 31 top environmental economists evaluate the most cost effective ways to reduce global warming. A stop-gap measure could be "geo-engineering" a solution by seeding marine clouds to reflect more light.

"That could avoid 100 years of warming for $9 billion, but that's a band-aid approach," he said.

Ultimately, both agree new clean energy technology is the only permanent solution to climate change. "We will never succeed in making dirty energy clean and inexpensive," Lomborg said.

'Large amounts' of water on Moon

BBC News

Nasa's experiment last month to find water on the Moon was a major success, agency scientists have announced.

The agency smashed a rocket and probe into a large crater at the lunar south pole, hoping to kick up ice.

Scientists who have studied the data now say instruments trained on the impact plume saw copious quantities of water vapour.

One researcher described this as the equivalent of "a dozen two-gallon buckets" of water.

The 1.6km-high plume of debris was kicked up by the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) last month when it crashed into a crater near the Moon's south pole.

"We're unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbour and, by extension, the Solar System," said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at Nasa's headquarters in Washington DC.

"The Moon harbours many secrets, and LCROSS has added a new layer to our understanding."

The identification of water-ice in the impact plume is important for purely scientific reasons, but also because a supply of water on the Moon would be a vital resource for future human exploration.

The impact into Cabeus crater threw up a large plume composed of water vapour and debris, which rose quickly.

An additional curtain of lunar debris was sent out laterally by the impact, and cloud moved more slowly.

Related Articles:

Water found in moon dirt

Indian Space Research Organization's probe finds water in Moon, NASA decides to accept the fact that it knew for decades - next step extraterrestrial presence on moon?

Water on moon: Researchers say water detected on celestial neighbor

Moon Rising (YouTube video)

The moon sets above the snowcovered Alp Salaz above Untervaz in the rhine valley, Switzerland, 05 November 2009. EPA/ARNO BALZARINI

Rare iceberg spotted off island south of Australia

Google/AP

In this Nov. 5, 2009, photo provided by the Australian Antarctic Division, a large iceberg spotted off Macquarie Island, about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) southeast of Australia, mid-way between Antarctica and Australia. It is a rare sight in waters so far north, Australian scientists said Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Australian Antarctic Division, Murray Potter)

SYDNEY — A large iceberg was spotted off an island about halfway between Antarctica and Australia, a rare sight in waters so far north, Australian scientists said Thursday.

Australian Antarctic Division researchers working on Macquarie Island, about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) southeast of Tasmania, first saw the iceberg last Thursday about 5 miles (8 kilometers) off the northwest coast of the island.

The iceberg, about 160 feet (50 meters) high and 1,640 feet (500 meters) long, is probably part of one of several larger icebergs that broke off Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf between 2000 and 2002, Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Neal Young said.

Several icebergs have been drifting slowly northward with the ocean current toward the island over the past year, but it is uncommon for them to move so far into warmer northern waters, he said.

The scientists believe the iceberg will break up and melt rapidly as it continues its journey north. Before it melts, however, it could present a danger to ships navigating the region, Young said.

In 2000, several massive icebergs broke off from Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf and the Ronne Ice Shelf. The first iceberg was about 190 miles (300 kilometers) long and 23 miles (37 kilometers) wide. Those icebergs are now drifting away from Antarctica.

Icebergs are formed as the ice shelf develops. Snow falls on the ice sheet and forms more ice, which flows to the edges, onto the floating ice shelves. Eventually, pieces around the edge break off.

Related Article:

Greenland ice loss accelerating: study

An iceberg floats in a fjord near the town of Kulusuk in eastern
Greenland August 2, 2009. (REUTERS/Bob Strong)

Barack Obama says he will go to Copenhagen climate change conference

President Barack Obama has said he will go to Copenhagen next month to secure an international deal on climate change.

Telegraph.co.uk, Published: 7:00AM GMT 10 Nov 2009

President Obama acknowledged that the US Senate would not pass the crucial legislation before Copenhagen.

A key global treaty to stop global warming almost collapsed last week after poorer nations threatened to walk out unless rich countries like America agree to cut their emissions.

However President Obama said he thinks a deal can still be done and he will go to Denmark in mid-December to make sure it happens.

"If I am confident that all of the countries involved are bargaining in good faith and we are on the brink of a meaningful agreement and my presence in Copenhagen will make a difference in tipping us over edge then certainly that's something that I will do," he told Reuters.

The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen has been billed as the world’s last chance to stop temperature rise going above 2C (3.6F).

The latest round of UN talks in Barcelona last week ended in deadlock, after the US and other rich countries refused to cut their greenhouse gas emissions in line with the poor world’s demands.

It is difficult for the US to sign up to legally-binding emission targets until the level of cuts have been approved by the Senate.

President Obama acknowledged that the US Senate would not pass the crucial legislation before Copenhagen.

But he said a “framework” agreement can still be thrashed out that commits the world to tackling global warming.

"I think the question is can we create a set of principles, building blocks, that allow for ongoing and continuing progress on the issue and that's something I'm confident we can achieve," he said.

The President’s intervention will come as a relief to environment groups who want America to lead the world on climate change – although they will be campaigning hard to ensure President Obama signs up to a tough enough target eventually.

It is now thought the Copenhagen meeting will become a “leader’s summit” where the world will make a “political agreement” on cutting emissions before thrashing out targets and a legal treaty later in the year.

Talks between the US and Chinese leaders during an Asia tour later this month will be crucial in agreeing carbon emission targets and the amount of money developed countries are willing to pay the poor world to help them cut emissions.

President Obama said the large polluting nations can thrash out a deal.

"The key now is for the United States and China, the two largest emitters in the world, is to be able to come up with a framework that, along with other big emitters like the Europeans and those countries that are projected to be large emitters in the future, like India, can all buy into," he said.

The fight over the future of food

Reuters, by Claudia Parsons, Russell Blinch and Svetlana Kovalyova, Nov 10, 2009

A worker collects rice at a plantation in Belcreda Gambolo, southwest of Milan
in northern Italy, November 6, 2009. (REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo)

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON/MILAN (Reuters) - At first glance, Giuseppe Oglio's farm near Milan looks like it's suffering from neglect. Weeds run rampant amid the rice fields and clover grows unchecked around his millet crop.

Oglio, a third generation farmer eschews modern farming techniques -- chemicals, fertilizers, heavy machinery -- in favor of a purely natural approach. It is not just ecological, he says, but profitable, and he believes his system can be replicated in starving regions of the globe.

Nearly 5,000 miles away, in laboratories in St. Louis, Missouri, hundreds of scientists at the world's biggest seed company, Monsanto, also want to feed the world, only their tools of choice are laser beams and petri dishes.

Monsanto, a leader in agricultural biotechnology, spends about $2 million a day on scientific research that aims to improve on Mother Nature, and is positioning itself as a key player in the fight against hunger.

The Italian farmer and the U.S. multinational represent the two extremes in an increasingly acrimonious debate over the future of food.

Everybody wants to end hunger, but just how to do so is a divisive question that pits environmentalists against anti-poverty campaigners, big business against consumers and rich countries against poor.

The food fight takes place at a time when experts on both sides agree on one thing -- the number of empty bellies around the world will only grow unless there is major intervention now.

A combination of the food crisis and the global economic downturn has catapulted the number of hungry people in the world to more than 1 billion. The United Nations says world food output must grow by 70 percent over the next four decades to feed a projected extra 2.3 billion people by 2050.

International leaders are gathering in Rome next week for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's World Summit on Food Security and will hear competing arguments over how best to tackle the problem. One of the fiercest disputes will be over the relative importance of science versus social and economic reforms to empower small farmers to grow more with existing technology.

"LISTEN TO NATURE"

Much of Europe has moved away from an agricultural system of small farms to mass commercial farming, but Italy still retains a base of family farmers who produce everything from olives to mozzarella cheese.

Oglio is one of them. A charismatic 40-year-old, he dropped out of an agricultural school after growing disillusioned with the farming methods being taught there. Today, he lets nature run its course as he grows cereals and legumes on his small family farm in Belcreda di Gambolo, about 20 miles southwest of Milan.

He does not use any chemical, or even natural fertilizers or pesticides. He does not weed his fields. "All you need to do is observe nature, listen to it, do what nature suggests and it will take care of everything," he said.

His fields, in a low-lying plain that has a long history of growing rice used for risotto, replicate patterns found in nature. For example, clover and millet grow together, feeding each other with necessary minerals.

Oglio said his farm is eco-sustainable. He has slashed operating costs by eliminating expensive commercial products like herbicides and by reducing the use of agricultural machinery to a minimum. Such cheap and low-maintenance farming could be adopted in Africa and other regions hit by poverty and hunger, he said.

Read the whole article ...

Species' extinction threat grows

BBC News

The Kihansi spray toad is now considered to be extinct in the wild

In pictures: Threatened species

More than a third of species assessed in a major international biodiversity study are threatened with extinction, scientists have warned.

Out of the 47,677 species in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 17,291 were deemed to be at serious risk.

These included 21% of mammals, 30% of amphibians, 70% of plants and 35% of invertebrates.

Conservationists warned that not enough was being done to tackle the main threats, such as habitat loss.

"The scientific evidence of a serious extinction crisis is mounting," warned Jane Smart, director of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Biodiversity Conservation Group.

"The latest analysis... shows that the 2010 target to reduce biodiversity loss will not be met," she added.

"It's time for governments to start getting serious about saving species and make sure it's high on their agendas for next year, as we are rapidly running out of time."

The Red List, regarded as the most authoritative assessment of the state of the planet's species, draws on the work of thousands of scientists around the globe.

The latest update lists amphibians as the most seriously affected group of organisms on the planet, with 1,895 of the 6,285 known species listed as threatened.

Of these, it lists 39 species as either "extinct" or "extinct in the wild". A further 484 are deemed "critically endangered", 754 "endangered" and 657 "vulnerable".

The Kihansi Spray Toad (Nectophyrnoides asperginis) is one species that has seen its status change from critically endangered to extinct in the wild.

It was only found in the Kihamsi Falls area of Tanzania, but its population had crashed in recent years from a high of an estimated 17,000 individuals.

Conservationists suggest that the rapid decline was primarily the result of of a dam being constructed upstream from the toads' habitat, which resulted in a 90% reduction in the flow of water.

"In our lifetime, we have gone from having to worry about a relatively small number of highly threatened species to the collapse of entire ecosystems," observed Professor Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programmes at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

"At what point will society truly respond to this growing crisis?"

The updated data from the 2009 Red List is being made publicly available on the IUCN website on Tuesday.

Related Article:

Over 17,000 species threatened by extinction

Farmers spend own climate change adaptation fund

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 11/02/2009 8:38 PM

Frustrated by the government’s inaction, traditional farmers and fishermen have taken initiatives in adapting to extreme weather as an impact of climate change.

Farmers in Pati, Central Java, have to set aside one eighth of their income to purchase water to irrigate their paddy fields because they have moved forward their planting time by two months to avoid annual floods in January over the last five years.

“We are forced to use our money to buy water due to the absence of government assistance,” Tanto, a farmer from Batu Rejo village in Sukolilo district in Pati, told a climate forum jointly organized by the Indonesian Civil Society Forum (CSF) and Oxfam on Monday.

Tanto said that around 170 farmers in his village collected an average of Rp 92 million each planting season to water 150 hectares of their paddies. The farmers plant paddies twice a year

The forum featured farmers and fishermen from several towns across the country, who shared their efforts to adapt to extreme weather changes believed to be the impacts of the climate change.

Farmers from Indramayu in West Java and East Nusa Tenggara said they were also facing depleting water supply and unpredictable weather.

The East Nusa Tenggara farmers said they were struggling to cope with “fake” rains.

“Rain usually falls once or twice at the end of October, prompting farmers to plant maize. But unfortunately there was no more rain in the next four weeks, causing the plants to die,” Dominggus Tes, a corn farmer from Nusa village, told the forum.

Meanwhile, traditional fishermen in Krui, West Lampung said local fishermen had been unable to predict weather in their area in the last five years.

“In the past we could predict the weather by locating the position of South Star. But it is no longer applicable now,” said fisherman Edy Hamdan.

He said the fishermen tried to adapt to the climate change by creating new fishnets at a cost of Rp 20 million.

“Otherwise, we will return home empty-handed,” he said.

Paradise lost?

COP15 Copenhagen, Michael von Bülow, 20/03/2009 12:40

Most people know the Maldives as a tropical paradise for holiday makers. But behind the white beaches and glittering waves is a poor population which has lived in close symbiosis with the sea for hundreds of years - but now has to look elsewhere for a place to live, as the ocean is steadily eating away at their islands.

When the tsunami hit the archipelago of the Maldives in 2004, it was more in the way of a flooding than a regular tidal wave due to the sharp profile of the atolls. Only 87 people perished, but the damages were catastrophic for the tiny island state.

Two thirds of the country disappeared momentarily into the Indian Ocean, and when the sea withdrew, it took 62 percent of the country’s GNP with it. Electricity, communications and freshwater supplies on many islands were destroyed by the saltwater, and not until two years later was the country brought back on foot with the aid of the UN and international aid organisations.

Perhaps it was only a taste of what the 300,000 citizens of the Maldives can expect if and when global warming kicks in and makes the world’s seas rise by as much as one meter within the next century, like the latest scientific studies forecast.

80 percent of the island state’s only 235 km2 are less than one meter above sea level, so disaster is looming. Erosion is constantly eating away at the vulnerable atolls, and climate change is already palpable in the shape of more rain and more disease-carrying mosquitoes.

To most foreigners the Maldives are just a paradise for holiday makers. White beaches as if taken straight from a postcard and a temperature that due to cooling breezes from the sea never becomes unbearably high, making the country a rare pearl made for sailing, surfing, diving or just lazing on the beach. Under the sea, hobby divers encounter a world of adventures with corals and a thousand different tropical fish species.

Almost 700.000 tourists from mainly Europe, Japan, China and Australia visit the Maldives each year. Upon landing in one of the two international airports, one immediately notices the proximity of the sea. It feels literally like landing on the water because the islands are so tiny – a jogger can easily cover the perimeter of the main island Male’ in less than half an hour. The runways are regularly wet with splashes of sea water, in spite of the fact that the airport island Hulhumale has been raised artificially to the breath-taking elevation of two meters above sea level.

With a share of 35-40 percent of the GNP, tourism is a vital source of income for the Maldives. The second largest source of income is tuna fishing, which is done with hook and line in the traditional, environmentally friendly way, but which is declining rapidly due to dwindling fish stock. Apart from that, there is some farming, consisting mostly of coconuts and papaya.

Historically, the Maldives have for hundreds of years been a crossroads for different trade routes, and this is reflected in the population which ethnically and culturally is a unique amalgamation of Indians, Africans and Arabs. In addition to that, the island state has its own written language.

But the citizens in the 100 percent Muslim country are poor, and with a national economy the size of a small European city the Maldives are totally dependant upon foreign aid and loans if the tropical paradise is to be saved from slipping away into the expansive ocean.

Who will provide the necessary hundreds of millions of dollars, and is it worth the trouble in the first place? Couldn’t the tourists just go somewhere else for their holidays and the Maldivian population move some place where the risk of getting their feet wet is less imminent?

“It is a tiny nation, and by then (2100, ed. note) the population will perhaps be half a million people who could theoretically be displaced. But can we accept the disappearance of a country and an absolutely unique culture? That is the question we need to ask ourselves,” says Jonas Kjær.

Following the tsunami, from spring 2005 till late 2007 the Dane was stationed in the Maldives by the UNDP as aid coordination advisor, aiding the Maldivian government with the economic rehabilitation. There is no doubt in his mind as to the answer.

“No, we can not accept that a country just disappears,” he says.

According to Jonas Kjær, the recipe for saving the Maldives is “population and development consolidation”. The first step would be to gather the population of the Maldives, which at the moment is scattered over 200 islands, on just 10 to 15 islands. This would at the same time make an additional number of islands available to tourists, thereby making them co-finance the relocation and rehabilitation of the local population.

The next step would be to elevate the islands artificially by two to three meters, and to build solid walls along the coast safeguarding the islands against the tide and storms.

“Of course, there are some social, cultural and historical considerations to be made. You don’t just move a population that has inhabited the islands for maybe 2,000 years. That takes political guts,” says Jonas Kjær.

In fact, population and development consolidation, nicknamed “pop concert”, has been sitting in a drawer with the previous government for at least 10 years. Due to political reluctance and fear of the population’s reaction the programme hasn’t been initiated. There seems, however, to be a growing understanding amongst the population for a need to do something – an understanding that has been augmented substantially by the impact of the tsunami.

The younger and more informed citizens have especially acknowledged the need to move, and some are already on their way. More and more young Maldivians go to Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, the US or the UK to study, and after finishing their studies some of them decide to stay in their new country, adding to the brain drain of their native country.

This leaves a Maldivian population, which after 30 years of semi-dictatorial rule has embarked on a positive democratic development, to hope that paradise has not already been lost.