“天堂”馬爾代夫的煩惱

在香港動畫片《麥兜故事》中，馬爾代夫被描述為“椰林樹影，水清沙幼，藍天白云，是位于印度洋上的世外桃源”。然而，隨著全球氣候變暖引發(fā)海平面不斷上升，馬爾代夫這座被譽為“度假天堂”的群島之國卻正面臨著可能被海水淹沒的危險。似乎有些難以置信?但正如馬爾代夫現(xiàn)任總統(tǒng)穆罕默德·納希德所說:“馬爾代夫是世界這座煤礦中的金絲雀。”(17世紀，英國煤礦工人發(fā)現(xiàn)金絲雀對于瓦斯?jié)舛鹊拿舾行赃h遠高于人類。于是，煤礦工人下井時，常常攜帶一個裝有金絲雀的鳥籠。“煤礦中的金絲雀”常用以比喻危險警報。)馬爾代夫所面臨的環(huán)境“棒喝”應當引發(fā)我們的深入思考，同時我們也要力求找到解決之道，因為我們同住“地球村”!

It is 1990 and a young writer sits in solitary confinement. He is repeatedly beaten—he has dared to openly criticize his country’s political elite. Through a 2)slit in the metal walls he can see 3)a sliver of ocean on the horizon. This is his only comfort. It is， he says， what opened his imagination， led him to think about a better future for his country.

Just a short distance from the small prison island where he is held， a paradise is being carefully 4)crafted. The small 5)knots of low-lying islands and 6)coral reef 7)atolls that make up the Maldives are being 8)engineered into one of the world’s most romantic tourist destinations. 9)Stilted luxury villas snake across translucent waters 10)teeming with exotic marine life. And the guest books fill with the signatures of world-famous leaders and celebrities in the years to come. The daily 11)grind for most Maldivians—prohibited from visiting these resorts to prevent what the government calls“12)cultural contamination”—was different.

In 1989， 13)Gayoom’s government hosted the first-ever conference of small island states threatened by sea-level rises. The serious threat of global warming was only just coming 14)onto the public’s radar. Now， 20 years later， a new 15)menace threatens the Maldives—the battle against the force of nature is just beginning.

The young writer repeatedly tortured and imprisoned 20 years ago now sits beside me. His name is Mohamed Nasheed and he was elected president of the Maldives in October 2008. “All you have to do when you are in prison is think， and even then I knew we were going to need dramatic solutions to the problems my country faces，” says Nasheed， a slightly 16)built man of 41 with a 17)high-pitched voice.

Shortly after taking office， Nasheed made the dramatic announcement that he intends to start18)banking enough tourist pounds and dollars to buy a new safe homeland in which to relocate his 386，000 citizens when—not if—rising sea levels make the Maldives uninhabitable. 19)Tracts of land in Australia， India and Sri Lanka are said to be under consideration for purchase. Nasheed’s plan caught the attention of the world’s media and led to 20)a flurry of 21)doomsday headlines painting a picture of a nation packing their bags and 22)decamping23)en masse， waves lapping at their ankles. The truth， as always， is more complex.

According to the latest scientific estimates， sea levels are expected to rise worldwide by up to 60 centimeters by the end of this century as a result of climbing temperatures and shifting weather patterns associated with the build-up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. And this does not even take into account how much further sea levels could rise if the 24)ice sheets of 25)Greenland and west 26)Antarctica start melting at ever more rapid rates.

The Maldives faced their first serious environmental wake-up call in 1998 when shifting ocean patterns associated with 27)El Nintilde;o caused sea temperatures to rise to such a degree that normally 28)vibrantly colored tropical coral reefs suffered extensive 29)bleaching， which causes the 30)algae they feed on to migrate or die. Nowhere was this more dramatic than in the Maldives. Between 70% and 90% of all coral reefs surrounding the country’s 26 atolls are estimated to have died as a result. One diver swimming the length of reefs in North Male atoll at the time described it as an underwater equivalent of the 31)snowcapped 32)Alps. Once the reefs die， coastal erosion escalates and the islands are left more exposed to the elements of nature than ever.

As I trail Nasheed and his Environment Minister， Mohamed Aslam， on a visit to one of the Maldives’ southernmost atolls and then travel to islands in the north to see such damage 33)first-hand， the prospect of the Maldives one day disappearing beneath the waves becomes a lot more believable. It is already happening to part of 34)Maduvvaree Island in the northern 35)Raa Atoll， and the fear and disbelief are written on the face of the 45-year-old fisherman Abdullah Kamal. Two years ago there were more than 50 meters of grass and sandy beach between the sea and Kamal’s house. Now the beach has vanished， and some of Kamal’s neighbors’ houses have already collapsed into the sea.

“At night I lie awake and listen to the water lapping against the back wall of our house. The children cry. They’re very afraid， but we have nowhere else to go，” says Kamal. He has heard about the president’s plan to start saving money to buy a new homeland if the Maldives are one day 36)inundated. But he does not believe his countrymen would want to move so far away. “We’re a nation of fishermen， and if they try to change that， our wings would be broken.”

Just how quickly sea levels will rise as a result of global warming is uncertain. But， as Aslam says， the effect of even a moderate rise in such a low-lying country as his will be quick and 37)drastic. “If the predictions are right， in less than 50 years we could be in a really bad situation，” he says.

“One of the biggest problems we face is a lack of understanding of how our islands are changing，” 38)concedes Aslam. “We welcome the international scientific community to come to the Maldives and use us as a 39)laboratory for understanding the dynamics of our islands and the global implications of climate change.”

1990年，一名年輕作家遭單獨囚禁，且被反復毒打。這一切都是因為他膽敢公開批評其國內政治領袖。在獄中，透過金屬墻壁上的裂縫，他可以看到地平線上的一小片海洋，這是他唯一的一點慰藉。他說，正是這個景象開啟了他的想象空間，激發(fā)他思考祖國更美好的未來。

在距離作家被關押的小島的不遠處，一座天堂正在被精心打造。一系列低洼小島和珊瑚環(huán)礁組成了馬爾代夫群島，這里正被設計成世界上最浪漫的旅游景點之一。一座座豪華吊腳樓式的別墅依海修建，半透明的海水里遍布各種奇異的海洋生物。在之后的許多年里，馬爾代夫成為游客們接踵而至的天堂，其中不乏世界著名領袖和名人。而大多數馬爾代夫人則過著截然不同的艱苦生活——他們被禁止游覽這些勝地，以避免導致當時的政府所謂的“文化污染”。……