Page 520 - Essencials of Sociology

The Growth Machine versus the Earth 493

THINKING CRITICALLY

The Island Nations: “Come See Us While
We Are Still Here”

he world’s glaciers and the ice caps at the North and South Poles store such
incredible amounts of water that if they melt, the level of the world’s oceans will
Trise by several feet. This will devastate the world’s shores and beaches. Low-lying
areas, such as the bayous around New Orleans and Mississippi, will be under water.
Many barrier islands off the coast of the United States will disappear. The oceans will
reclaim Florida’s Everglades.
As the glaciers and ice caps melt, entire nations may find
that all of their landmass lies below water. These are the
world’s low-lying little island nations. The highest point
on some of them is just six feet higher than the level of the
ocean.
The few residents of the Everglades will move, and its alli-
gators will migrate a little northward. So will the alligators
and humans who populate the southern bayous. New Orleans
probably should be abandoned, but it is likely that once again,
a broke federal government will pour billions of dollars more
into saving the city, which will increasingly lie below sea level.
And the island nations? Unless their inhabitants, including
their babies and elderly, learn how to live wearing wet suits,
what are these nations going to do? The Maldives in the Indian
Ocean, which has been an independent nation only since 1965,
is wrestling with this question. So far, they have only managed
to come up with a cute tongue-in-cheek slogan to promote
tourism: “Come see us while we’re still here” (Dickey and
Rogers 2002). Maldives
No one has taken the Maldives’ ministry of tourism suggestion seriously, so the
Maldives aren’t using this slogan. But it does point to the severity of the problem. Since
no one other than a few divers and surfers wants to wear those wet suits, and then for
only a few hours a day, just what will these island nations do?
These nations still have a few decades to work out a solution, so maybe they can come
up with something better than slogans to promote last-minute tourism.
At least, everyone thought this problem was a few decades off (Gerken 2012). The
ice, however, is melting faster than the computer models had predicted. Like the days
before a big exam, this problem is rushing ominously on us.
One of these South Pacific nations, Kiribati, which didn’t gain its independence until
1979, has hit upon what seems to be a practical solution. Its leaders have been conserva-
tive, and over the past few years, this nation has saved money. They have used these sav-
ings to buy land in Fiji, which is 1,500 miles away. They are making plans to move their
entire population of 106,000 there (Perry 2012).

For Your Consideration
In the face of rising seas, what do you think the island nations should do? Since these
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nations have so few people, it seems that their problems can be solved. Similarly, the Most
Industrialized Nations have the capital and the infrastructure to either protect their low-
lands or move their people. But how about the Least Industrialized Nations? Bangladesh,
for example, is one of the poorest and most crowded nations of the world. Millions of
Bangladeshis live in areas that are likely to be flooded. How do you think such problems can
be handled? ■