- [Narrator] I'm Kento Bento.
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The Maldives, 2119, in the Indian Ocean.
Children play on the streets,
as worshippers enter the city mosque for their morning prayer.
Fresh fruit and vegetable stands line the alleyways,
as nearby fishermen with their buckets of entrails
gut their morning catch on the sidewalk.
This is the city of Malé, the capital of the Maldives,
and in 2119, aside from some advanced architecture,
it appears life in the Maldives isn't so different
from a hundred years earlier.
But the closer you look, the more you may miss,
because you should in fact be looking from afar,
far back enough to see that the nation of islands,
formerly known as the Maldives,
has actually long been evacuated.
In place, a nation of oil rigs,
because this is the new Maldives:
over 400 offshore oil rigs, no longer used for drilling,
refurbished to hold the entire Maldivian population,
with rigs for general housing,
but also solely for specific functions like livestock rigs, airport rigs,
landfill, government, education, and even prison oil rigs,
this essentially preserving the classic Maldivian way of life
in much the same geographical location from a century earlier.
Now with rising sea levels due to climate change,
this is just one version of events,
one possible future scenario to save the Maldives and its people,
and in this video, we'll be covering the rest,
as we build up to the finale,
with the most impenetrable, the most unexpected,
and, well, the most extravagant one of all.
Now, thousands of years ago,
in the vastness of the Indian Ocean, 600km southwest of Sri Lanka,
islands burst through the surface
after the eruption of a chain of underwater volcanoes.
This created a paradise for future inhabitants,
with about 1200 coral islands grouped in a double chain of 26 atolls,
spread over 90,000 square kilometers, this making it
one of the most dispersed countries in the world.
More importantly though, with the average ground level
being about 1.2 meters above sea level,
it's also the lowest and flattest country on Earth.
Note the tallest mountain you can conquer is a mere 2.4 meters high.
Clearly, rising sea levels will be seriously impacting
the culture and livelihood of all citizens of the Maldives.
So, with number two on our list,
perhaps we could gradually increase the elevation
of the existing land by adding sand.
Yes, populations would need to be arduously relocated
from lower to higher grounds, which isn't ideal,
but it would enable the islands to retain storage capacity
for groundwater, very important,
considering rising sea levels in general is expected
to further reduce the dwindling freshwater supplies.
Another benefit is that it would not substantially change
the character of the islands,
which wouldn't be the case for, say, land reclamation.
Now, shifting from maintenance of land to creation of land,
land reclamation often involves dredging up sediments
and debris from the ocean floor
in order to construct new elevated land.
Engineers have already built several reclaimed islands
in the Maldives by pumping sand from the surrounding atolls,
like Thilafushi and Hulhumale,
but usable sand isn't limitless,
and just like oil, is a sought-after commodity.
And so, the Maldives have been importing
huge quantities of sand from various countries,
like Bangladesh in particular,
which for them makes sense, as huge amounts of sediment
are being naturally deposited from the Himalayas
to Bangladeshi rivers, which impairs navigability,
and so there the dredging of rivers is a necessity,
Win-win.
Wall.
Now, let's change continents for a sec.
Netherlands, 1953.
Heavy storms caused major flooding
in several European countries in the North Sea region.
The Netherlands, with large areas below mean sea level,
was the worst affected.
And this wasn't unique, as over the centuries
the country had been subject to numerous floods.
As a long-term solution the Dutch developed the Delta Works,
an extensive system of protective dams
and storm surge barriers which shortened their coastline.
This was finally completed about 40 years later in 1997.
So what if the Maldives built something similar,
massive sea walls, barriers, to solidify their coastal defenses?
I should mention that the capital Malé currently has a three-meter high barrier
protecting its inhabitants,
which was donated by the Japanese government.
They sure know a thing or two
about the failures of protecting their coastlines.
But it's certainly not as sophisticated as it could be.
For the Delta Works in the Netherlands
it has been declared one of the Seven Wonders
of the modern World, but if a proper Maldivian counterpart
were to be constructed, we're talking extensive barriers
around all the islands and atolls,
it would be on an even greater scale.
But the larger these sorts of construction projects,
the greater too, the ecological impact;
reclaimed land, giant sea walls,
these tend to lead to habitat destruction of native species,
negatively impacting coastal populations.
Now, of course the sentiment of many
is that they would rather destroy a few reefs
than to see an entire culture go extinct, than to see their cities sink.
But, hold on.
According to satellite pictures and Google Earth
from the past years, indeed some islands are sinking
or rather shrinking as you would expect, but not all.
In fact, despite rising sea levels, some islands appear to be growing.
There is research out there that suggests
submergence might not be a foregone conclusion.
You see, reefs, or coral reefs,
are some of the most dynamic landforms on Earth;
they change shape and move around in response to shifting sediments.
Monsoon winds and storms can break up coral
and deposit sand on atolls helping islands grow naturally,
and this too can happen with rising sea levels in general.
In essence, coral reefs can act as a natural buffer to protect shorelines.
So it seems clear that we need to protect and preserve this natural process
to give us a better shot in the future,
which brings us back to the issue of habitat destruction,
because, unfortunately, this natural process
is being disrupted quite frequently by human development
as reefs are losing the sand.
Note some of these approaches are quite the double-edged sword.
Regardless, it's tremendously risky to rely on this natural process alone,
as there is still much we don't know,
like how much sand will be produced,
how consistent it is across islands, and to what extent
it will actually counter rising sea levels.
We do, however, know a lot about what causes global warming,
which begs the question: how much of this can be prevented in the first place?
Girifushi, The Maldives, 2009,
20 feet below the surface of a lagoon,
a cabinet meeting was taking place among the fishes.
No, seriously.
Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed, his vice president,
cabinet secretary and 11 ministers, donning scuba gear,
submerged themselves in the ocean,
taking their seat at the table on the seafloor.
They proceeded to have an underwater cabinet meeting,
using white boards and hand signals to communicate.
It was probably a slow day at the office,
but that wasn't the point, because with a backdrop of coral,
the meeting was a bid to draw global attention
to the effects of climate change and rising sea levels.
President Nasheed after all had promised
to make the Maldives the world's first carbon-neutral country by 2020,
eliminating the use of fossil fuels and switching to renewable energy sources,
a tall order, as we would later find out.
As bubbles floated up their face masks,
the president and the 13 government officials
signed a document calling for all countries
to join them in cutting their carbon dioxide emissions,
the Maldives here trying to lead by example
with this lighthearted yet poignant display,
hopeful that others would follow.
And this was important, as the Maldives
taking action on their own would only account
for a tiny bit of difference in global carbon emissions,
this wouldn't save their country.
Changes in, say, the United States and China,
the world's two largest emitters, would likely mean a whole lot more.
Unfortunately, in 2017, US President Donald Trump
announced his intention to withdraw
the United States from the Paris Agreement.
Now, the truth is though,
even if all carbon emissions were to cease tomorrow,
it wouldn't prevent what many scientists see
as the physical inevitability of destructive sea level rise.
And this Nasheed was well aware of,
as, in addition to his attempts at reducing
the carbon footprint, he was in search for a new homeland.
Yes, his intention was to buy new land elsewhere
for the entire Maldivian population,
as an insurance policy for the worst case scenario,
something we'll get to in a later video.
But, unfortunately for Nasheed, he was ousted as president in 2012,
and since then the Maldivian government has changed course dramatically,
as the new administration's approach to rising sea level
has been less concerned with the environmental consequences,
and more inclined towards the opposite, mass development,
including a revolutionary approach rarely seen before.
Now, if these kinds of coastal defenses
the Maldives need are even possible, though,
it's going to be tremendously costly,
especially considering they're a developing country.
In fact, they'd likely be unaffordable without the unlikely prospect
of major international backing, and, further,
putting the fate of their nation's existence
in the hands of those largely responsible
for their current climate woes seems risky to say the least.
So this was the new thinking:
if they were truly going to survive rising sea levels,
money is what they needed, and lots of it.
And so the focus needed to be on growing
their tourism sector, as that is their largest industry,
key to building their economy.
They felt Nasheed's idealistic approach previously was doing the opposite:
it was killing the economy,
with huge chunks of their tourism funds being diverted to the high upfront cost
of sustaining a carbon-neutral country and the purchasing of new land.
This, they felt, was an acceptance of defeat.
But now, there is a problem.
Some of these mass development projects don't quite align with the new directive.
We know the white sand beaches, the coral reefs,
and tropical resorts are essential for tourism,
but, looking ahead, it's unclear whether, say,
vacationing on an old recycled oil rig
would have the same draw, or, for that matter,
having massive sea walls blocking the beautiful ocean view.
Reclaiming islands is a better approach in this regard,
but continuous sea level rise means fortifying coastal defenses,
which, certainly exhaustive, would be an ongoing thing,
which is why the Maldivian government is now looking
to develop a special kind of artificial island,
one that will survive rising tides, no matter how high.
Tethered to the ocean floor by cables, this structure
will stay above water even in the worst of storms.
Yes, we're talking about floating islands.
No, not the dessert.
For this, the government has teamed
with a Dutch architectural firm specializing in this field,
who has already built thousands of floating homes,
a floating conference center, and even a floating prison,
back in their native Netherlands.
These new floating islands will have swanky new resorts,
waterfront villas, luxury housing,
even an 18-hole golf course on its own island,
and these are expected to attract millions more tourists.
Even better, the new structures
supposedly won't have as many adverse effects
on the environment, as it's tethered, so it won't hurt
or touch the surrounding coral reefs and marine life.
Now, to get started paying for all these mega projects though,
part of the Maldives' strategy is to rent out their own islands.
Currently, they are in negotiations
with Saudi Arabia to lease an entire atoll,
Faafu Atoll, consisting of 23 islands.
The lease is set for 99 years,
during which the Saudis are planning to invest
at least $10 billion into developing the land.
Note $10 billion is more than twice the GDP of the Maldives.
And this may just be the start.
Politicians are hoping the transformation of The Maldives,
in general, will lead to a "smart" country
with a new capital, high-tech centers,
innovative architecture, economic free zones
and some of the best universities in the world
to attract the global elite.
When we think of what tomorrow's cities will look like,
most of us envision, say, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Dubai, Shanghai,
Singapore, but perhaps it might just be a city
from what was once a tiny backwater nation in the middle of the Indian Ocean,
that at one point we all thought needed saving.
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And for everyone who stayed till the end, thank you for watching.
(exciting electronic music)