November 10, 2008

The Maldives Swap

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THE MALDIVES SWAP….The Maldives — average elevation: 150 cm above sea level — wants to buy some land in another country as an insurance policy against global warming:

[Newly elected president Mohamed Nasheed] said Sri Lanka and India were targets because they had similar cultures, cuisines and climates. Australia was also being considered because of the amount of unoccupied land available.

“We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades,” he said.

Instead of setting up a sovereign wealth fund to purchase the land, perhaps Nasheed should just buy a credit default swap that pays off if the Maldives are inundated. Since Republicans don’t believe that global warming exists, they should be eager buyers for the other end of the swap.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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