Sunday, November 27, 2011

Tuvalu Plans to Bring in a Mountain

This is from the delightful opening to a great article by Andrew Marantz on the threat to the Pacific island of Tuvalu due to rising seas from global warming. It's titled "A Rising Tide" and is in the December 2011 issue of Harper's Magazine (sub. req.). The author is talking to Maatia Toafa, Tuvalu's prime minister.
I asked what solutions he [Toafa] proposed to the issue that his entire country might be underwater in fifty years.

He said he would consider “bringing in some mountains from somewhere, so we can have a higher elevation.”

“Mountains?” I asked.

“Sure,” he said.

Where would the mountains come from?"

"Well," he said. "We'll ask around."
The rest of the article is just as good. It's in Harper's, after all.

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