因小島有沉沒危險，馬爾代夫絕望求救：“我們不能再等了”

因小島有沉沒危險，馬爾代夫絕望求救：“我們不能再等了”

The tropical Maldives may lose entire islands unless it can quickly access cheap financing to fight the impact of climate change, its foreign minister said.

熱帶的馬爾代夫外交部長說，除非它能迅速獲得廉價的資金來對抗氣候變化的影響，否則可能會失去整個島嶼。

The archipelago’s former president Mohamed Nasheed famously held a cabinet meeting underwater to draw attention to submerging land and global warming a decade ago.

十年前，這個群島的前總統(tǒng)穆罕默德·納希德(Mohamed Nasheed)曾在水下召開內閣會議，以引起人們對陸地下沉和全球變暖的關注。

Yet the Maldives, best known for its white sands and palm-fringed atolls that draw luxury holiday-makers, has struggled to find money to build critical infrastructure like sea-walls.

然而，以白沙和棕櫚樹環(huán)繞的環(huán)礁吸引豪華度假者而聞名的馬爾代夫，卻一直難以找到資金來建造海堤等關鍵基礎設施。

“For small states, it is not easy,” Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid told Reuters in New Delhi. “By the time the financing is obtained, we may be underwater.”

印度外長阿卜杜拉·沙希德(Abdulla Shahid)在新德里對路透社(Reuters)表示:“對于小國來說，這并不容易。”“等到獲得融資的時候，我們可能已經(jīng)資不抵債了。”

At the UN climate talks in Madrid in December, the Maldives and other vulnerable countries pushed for concrete progress on fresh funding to help them deal with disasters and longer-term damage linked to climate change — but failed.

在12月于馬德里舉行的聯(lián)合國氣候變化會議上，馬爾代夫和其他脆弱的國家推動在新的資金方面取得具體進展，以幫助它們應對與氣候變化有關的災害和長期損害，但未能成功。

Shahid was hopeful the next round of talks, slated to take place in Glasgow in November, would yield better results.

沙希德希望，定于11月在格拉斯哥舉行的下一輪談判將產(chǎn)生更好的結果。

One of the world’s lowest-lying countries, more than 80 percent of the Maldives’ land is less than one meter above mean sea levels, making its population of around 530,000 people extremely vulnerable to storm surges, sea swells and severe weather.

馬爾代夫是世界上地勢最低的國家之一，超過80%的馬爾代夫土地海拔低于平均海平面1米，這使得其約53萬人口極易受到風暴潮、海浪和惡劣天氣的影響。

In 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami ravaged the Muslim-majority state, causing financial losses of around $470 million — 62 percent of GDP — and hitting infrastructure, including its only international airport that was shut for several days.

2004年，印度洋海嘯摧毀了這個穆斯林占多數(shù)的邦，造成了大約4.7億美元的經(jīng)濟損失，相當于印度國內生產(chǎn)總值的62%。海嘯還摧毀了基礎設施，包括唯一一個關閉了幾天的國際機場。