Paradise (not) lost

The Maldives, the BBC and the "climate crisis"

Dear Church Leaders (and everyone else)

Further to these posts featuring the BBC…

Greta Thunberg as you've never seen her before (maybe)

The Trusted News Initiative

…here is a BBC News article about the Maldives from 2004 — Maldives: Paradise soon to be lost:

It began:

To visit the Maldives is to witness the slow death of a nation… this tourist haven is cursed with mounting evidence of an environmental catastrophe.

But note that no links to the “mounting evidence” was included. And that if Nick Bryant¹ had been basing his article on such evidence, it wouldn’t have been difficult to include links to it.

The closest we got to actual data was the statement that:

…government scientists fear the sea level is rising up to 0.9cm a year

(though with no quotation from any particular government scientist)

And the explanation that:

Since 80% of its 1,200 islands are no more than 1 m above sea level, within 100 years the Maldives could become uninhabitable.

The article ended:

As policy-makers in Male [the capital city, often written as Malé] are depressingly aware, their ultimate fate lies in the hands of politicians in Delhi, Beijing, Moscow and Washington…

This minnow of a nation faces a mammoth task — to persuade members of the US government, whether officials in the Bush administration or lawmakers on Capitol Hill, to make long-term decisions from a global perspective, rather than short-term choices based on national self-interest.

The Maldives can exert moral pressure and press its strong scientific case. But not much more.

Perhaps the Maldives did indeed have a strong scientific case. But a strong scientific case was certainly not made in this article. And no links to any actual scientific evidence (strong or otherwise) were provided.

Nevertheless, the journalist² concluded:

The Maldives’ survival as a sovereign nation is truly at stake. So come here fast, before it disappears. This is a paradise faced with extinction. (Emphasis added)

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2004 feels like quite a while ago now. A time before Strictly.³ And smartphones.⁴ How did we cope?

For context, here is a 2004 report featuring tourism numbers in the Maldives:

In 2002 there were just over 4 million tourist bed nights. And almost half a million tourist arrivals.

Now let’s fast forward 20 years. How is the paradise that was “facing extinction” in 2004 faring in 2024? The numbers for 2022 can be found here:

Here is the table for the number of tourist bed nights in 2022 (p14):

Around 9 million, so not far off the number prior to the covid response (which has had by far the biggest negative impact on tourism in the Maldives in recent years). And more than double that of 2002.

And here is the table for the number of tourist arrivals in 2022 (p17):

Almost a million, so heading back towards the ~ 1.4 million prior to the covid era. And around twice that of 2002.

Moreover, according to this article, the Ministry of Tourism’s optimistic projections indicate the Maldives is on track to achieve its ambitious goal of welcoming 2 million tourists in 2024.

Hmm. Not bad for a nation once “cursed with mounting evidence of an environmental catastrophe”.

I wondered if there had been any updates from the BBC.

Here are the top results from a recent search of the BBC website for “Maldives climate”:

Note the dates.

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Related:

Watch out that you are not deceived

If you haven’t seen it, I particularly recommend the two-minute interview/transcript starting around halfway through the article (direct link here).

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Dear Church Leaders articles (some of which, including this one, can also be found on Unexpected Turns)

The Big Reveal: Christianity carefully considered

1. Now the BBC’s New York correspondent

2. Some would say propagandist

3. BBC television show Strictly Come Dancing

4. The first iPhone was launched in 2007