Jaunted

Global Warming

Can Britain’s Coral Farmers Save The Maldives?

November 13, 2008 at 9:30 AM | 0 Comments

With natural spectacles like Australia’s Great Barrier Reef under threat from global warming, we know there’s a rush on to visit them before they’re destroyed forever.

But there is another way. Over in Britain, growing your own Great Barrier Reef has become a trendy hobby of late. Yep, the "home-grown coral farm" craze is sweeping the nation with new farming techniques making it possible to grow your own coral reef in a tank in your yard.

All we need now is for some of these hobby coral farmers to make their tanks big enough for snorkeling and tourists will be flocking in. Or make even larger coral reefs and when the Maldives disappear, there'll be somewhere just like home for the Maldivians to move to--after all, they're now saving cash for the day when rising sea levels obliterate their country.

Related Stories:
· Great Barrier Reef in Garden Shed [Ananova]
· Maldives Saves for New Homeland Amid Flooding Fears [AFP, via Google]
· Water Hazard [Jaunted]

[Photo: stuandgravy]

National Parks

Global Warming Travel: No Joshua Trees National Park

February 7, 2008 at 12:05 PM | 0 Comments

The strange looking, U2-album-inspiring Joshua tree is in trouble. Its range has been in decline for millennia, and at least one scientist says it'll be extinct in 50 to 100 years thanks to global climate change. That doesn't bode well for Joshua Tree National Park in California.

One park ranger admits he and his colleagues are worried about the situation:

One of the questions we talk about at least internally and on an informal basis is, "What do you have here as a national park without Joshua trees?"

Good question. As one couple visiting the park asks an NPR reporter, why would you want to visit a vacant desert devoid of all life?

Related Stories:
· Outlook Bleak for Joshua Trees [NPR]
· Joshua Tree National Park [Official Site]
· Maldives Preparing for Global Warming Apocalypse [Jaunted]
· Tuvalu Slowly Sinking Under the Sea [Jaunted]

[Photo: ChuckThePhotographer]

Environment

Maldives Preparing for Global Warming Apocalypse

January 28, 2008 at 12:08 PM | 0 Comments

Seawalls on the seashore...

As far back as 1992, the president of the Maldives, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, warned that his nation could end up under the ocean by the year 2100. After the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, the entire archipelago was underwater for minutes. And the Kyoto Protocol has done about, well, nothing to keep the Indian Ocean at bay.

So the Maldives built huge seawalls--at the expense of the islands' natural beauty. (Not high on our attractive natural wonders scale: concrete blocks.) As for beaches, the new strategy is to build artificial islands, like Hulhumale, where white sand is the norm and engineering staves off submersion.

Still, forging artificial atolls isn't cheap. Unless the Maldives can convince industrialized nations--which create most of the world's greenhouse gasses--to chip in some cash, the future of the island nation remains in doubt.

Related Stories:
· Maldives Builds Barriers to Global Warming [NPR]
· Air Taxis Trump Land Taxis in the Maldives [Jaunted]
· The Maldives: Destination of the Year 2006 [Jaunted]
· Tuvalu Slowly Sinking Under The Sea [Jaunted]