Maldives taking their final dive?

Will the island nation of Maldives disappear? Even Rupert Murdoch's Sky TV has reported on the uncertain future of the low-lying islands. And now the Maldives' president is asking the world to take action to save his tiny nation. Of course, Maldivians see their homeland threatened not from terrorists but rising sea levels. At the UN climate talks this week the Maldives president told the other leaders his nation faced extinction. "You are not listening," he said. The Maldives are in the south Indian Ocean and cover over 1100 islands and atolls, most unpopulated. There are about 300,000 residents in the country. Most of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldivesaldives areless than five feet above sea level and the highest point in the nation is less than eight feet above sea level. They could simply be wiped wiped by a tsunami, right? One issue: Maldives get much of their income from tourism. Anybody notice any carbon neutral travel to islands? Big sailboats from London? [poll id="179"] STANDARD BOILER PLATE This verbiage will now be attached to any blog I do about global warming. It’s amazing to me that somebody who can apparently read and then post comments still wonders in public why global warming matters on a technology web site. But I am naive, always assuming everybody’s paying attention. It’s because of money. If global warming has enough acceptance among corporations, the public and even pols, there will be more money spent on green tech, wisely or unwisely. If oil prices stay low and most people don’t care a fig about global warming, green tech will have a difficult time succeeding, regardless of its merits. Not every good idea succeeds. VCs usually invest where they think there’s best chance for a good return. In greentech as in any tech the winners will often be determined by luck, brilliance, timing, happenstance and even marketing. Behind it all will be the money and behind that: whether the evidence for global warming and curtailing pollution drive action or is written off as claptrap.