Smoke and Mirrors.

Ever tried to find the Maldives on a map of the world? They look like flyspecks on the Indian Ocean: coral and sand atolls where 270,000 people live at a maximum altitude of, oh, about five feet above sea level. Or maybe a lot less. In fact, the islands are disappearing before the residents' very eyes. So grim is the situation that the Ministry of Tourism once considered making the national slogan "Come see us while we're still here." There may be many reasons the coral is dying, the sea is rising and the beaches are washing away. Climate science is imprecise. But ever since President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's car almost got swept into the water by a freak wave in 1987 and ...