Swedish scientist to President Nasheed: Maldives not in danger of sinking
| DATE: 2009-10-27 | PRINT | Share
Nils-Axel Mörner, former Head of Paleogeophysics & Geodynamics at Stockholm University and former President of the INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution, has spent the last 30 years or so researching and studying the changes to sea-level. In 2000, Mörner led a survey in Maldives called the Maldives Sea Level Project to determine the effects of sea-level rise in the country.
In the open letter to President Nasheed, Mörner said that his research group had found “overwhelming evidence that sea level was by no means in a rising mode in the Maldives, but had remained quite stable for the last 30 years…”
“I thought it would not be respectful to the fine people of the Maldives if I were to return home and present our results in international fora. Therefore, I announced this happy news during an interview for your local TV station. However, your predecessor as president censored and stopped the broadcast,” Mörner’s letter said.
Mörner said that when the Government changed and President Mohamed Nasheed was elected to office, he was hoping both for democracy and for dialogue.
“However, I have written to you twice without reply,” Mörner said in his letter. “Your people ought not to have to suffer a constant claim that there is no future for them on their own islands. This terrible message is deeply inappropriate, since it is founded not upon reality but upon an imported concept, which lacks scientific justification and is thus untenable. There is simply no rational basis for it.”
In the letter, Mörner also included a summary of his findings in the Maldives. The summary is as follows:
(1) In the last 2000 years, sea level has oscillated with 5 peaks reaching 0.6 to 1.2 m above the present sea level.
(2) From 1790 to 1970 sea level was about 20 cm higher than today
(3) In the 1970s, sea level fell by about 20 cm to its present level
(4) Sea level has remained stable for the last 30 years, implying that there are no traces of any alarming on-going sea level rise.
(5) Therefore, we are able to free the Maldives (and the rest of low-lying coasts and island around the globe) from the condemnation of becoming flooded in the near future.
In conclusion, Mörner said that it was a serious mistake for President Nasheed to ignore available observational facts, refuse a normal democratic dialogue, and continue to menace the people of Maldives with “the imaginary threat of a disastrous flooding already in progress”.
| DATE: 2009-10-27 | PRINT | Share
Nils-Axel Mörner, former Head of Paleogeophysics & Geodynamics at Stockholm University and former President of the INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution, has spent the last 30 years or so researching and studying the changes to sea-level. In 2000, Mörner led a survey in Maldives called the Maldives Sea Level Project to determine the effects of sea-level rise in the country.
In the open letter to President Nasheed, Mörner said that his research group had found “overwhelming evidence that sea level was by no means in a rising mode in the Maldives, but had remained quite stable for the last 30 years…”
“I thought it would not be respectful to the fine people of the Maldives if I were to return home and present our results in international fora. Therefore, I announced this happy news during an interview for your local TV station. However, your predecessor as president censored and stopped the broadcast,” Mörner’s letter said.
Mörner said that when the Government changed and President Mohamed Nasheed was elected to office, he was hoping both for democracy and for dialogue.
“However, I have written to you twice without reply,” Mörner said in his letter. “Your people ought not to have to suffer a constant claim that there is no future for them on their own islands. This terrible message is deeply inappropriate, since it is founded not upon reality but upon an imported concept, which lacks scientific justification and is thus untenable. There is simply no rational basis for it.”
In the letter, Mörner also included a summary of his findings in the Maldives. The summary is as follows:
(1) In the last 2000 years, sea level has oscillated with 5 peaks reaching 0.6 to 1.2 m above the present sea level.
(2) From 1790 to 1970 sea level was about 20 cm higher than today
(3) In the 1970s, sea level fell by about 20 cm to its present level
(4) Sea level has remained stable for the last 30 years, implying that there are no traces of any alarming on-going sea level rise.
(5) Therefore, we are able to free the Maldives (and the rest of low-lying coasts and island around the globe) from the condemnation of becoming flooded in the near future.
In conclusion, Mörner said that it was a serious mistake for President Nasheed to ignore available observational facts, refuse a normal democratic dialogue, and continue to menace the people of Maldives with “the imaginary threat of a disastrous flooding already in progress”.
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