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HIGHER ARTIFICIAL ISLAND MAY KEEP MALDIVES AFLOAT

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

In today’s newsletter, other nations study a radical climate change measure. Plus, we look at the ‘error’ that kept a piece of Minnesota pristine; your view on buying carbon offsets; the eco-warriors who live in tunnels … and how long will climate change keep the Corn Belt booming?

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARCO ZORZANELLO

By David Beard, Executive Editor, Newsletters

The sea is rising. How will the low-lying Maldives survive?

By rising as well.

Unable so far to persuade nations to slow carbon emissions (which are increasing world temperatures and ocean levels), the travel-friendly Maldives is working on a drastic Plan B. It is creating an artificial island, set three feet higher than many of its other islands, with vertical housing for half of its people.

That’s not all. The island nation is also planning 5,000 homes floating on pontoons, able to rise with the waters. There’s not much time, so these audacious ideas are being watched by other nations beset by climate change, Tristan McConnell writes. (Pictured above, a couple navigating around a home abandoned when the sea eroded its foundations.)

The new island and the high-rises may help the nation buy time, but it is a hard transition for people who are moving in from the threatened islands. It will exacerbate issues of livelihoods, culture, and even waste management. Some residents are unsettled by living at such a high altitude (pictured above, a neighborhood of 16 high-rises on the artificial island.)

Supporters of this Plan B say it’s better than an idea floated a decade ago: Move the entire populace of 550,000 to Australia.

Yet, as McConnell writes, this new island “also carries a warning worth heeding as climate change wreaks increasing havoc on every continent: We may lose who we are even before we lose where we are.”

Pictured above, a marine biologist works a coral nursery off the Maldives. Corals, as well as people, are under strain as the oceans warm.

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT

PHOTOGRAPH BY TRAVELPIX LTD, GETTY IMAGES

‘Sustainable’ flying: Would you purchase carbon offsets for air travel? Many travelers are looking to reduce their carbon footprint. Airlines such as Delta, United, and British Airways have options to pay a small surcharge to offset carbon emissions for seats on the flight. More than a third of Americans surveyed in a National Geographic and Morning Consult poll said they’d be willing to shell out some extra cash when paying for an airline ticket to help protect the environment. Millennials are more in favor of carbon offsets, but many travelers want to know where the money goes. (Pictured above, a Boeing 747 landing as the sun sets.) Interested in how aviation is going greener? Check out this story by Sam Howe Verhovek and Nat Geo Explorer Davide Monteleone.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

TAKE FIVE

PHOTOGRAPH BY PEDRO PARDO, AFP/GETTY IMAGES

‘Nanobubbles’ and tour boats could save an endangered Mexican wetland (pictured above)

The eco-protesters who live in tunnels

How did a sliver of northern Minnesota remain pristine? A surveying error.

Car ads in France will soon have to encourage more environmentally friendly travel

Your medical history might someday include ‘climate change’

ONE MOMENT

PHOTOGRAPH BY THIERRY MALLET, AP/SHUTTERSTOCK

What lives, what dies? How do we decide which of the world’s cultural touchstones to preserve? And does “preservation” mean keeping it just the way it was before—or allowing for alterations to show society’s progress? Those are the questions Susan Goldberg asks in her introductory essay in the February issue of National Geographic, on the rebirth of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris after a devastating 2019 fire (pictured above). Here’s a step-by-step look at Notre Dame’s restoration.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

FAST FORWARD

PHOTOGRAPH BY RANDY OLSON, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Thanks, climate change: Since the 1880s, America’s Corn Belt has grown to produce about a third of the world’s corn, and produces 20 times more than it did in the 1880s on just about double the land area. Over the last 15 years, however, the improvements have been less technological and more climate related, Alejandra Borunda reports. According to a new study, climate change has recently added milder weather and longer growing seasons. But how long, Borunda examines, will the good times last? (Pictured above, packing down a mound of corn at a Nebraska feedlot before a storm.)

We hope you liked today’s Planet Possible newsletter. This was edited and curated by Monica Williams, Heather Kim, and David Beard. Have an idea or link for us? Let us know at [email protected].

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