因小岛有沉没危险，马尔代夫绝望求救：“我们不能再等了”

因小岛有沉没危险，马尔代夫绝望求救：“我们不能再等了”

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.

热带的马尔代夫外交部长说，除非它能迅速获得廉价的资金来对抗气候变化的影响，否则可能会失去整个岛屿。

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，这个群岛的前总统穆罕默德·纳希德(Mohamed Nasheed)曾在水下召开内阁会议，以引起人们对陆地下沉和全球变暖的关注。

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，以白沙和棕榈树环绕的环礁吸引豪华度假者而闻名的马尔代夫，却一直难以找到资金来建造海堤等关键基础设施。

“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.”

印度外长阿卜杜拉·沙希德(Abdulla Shahid)在新德里对路透社(Reuters)表示:“对于小国来说，这并不容易。”“等到获得融资的时候，我们可能已经资不抵债了。”

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月于马德里举行的联合国气候变化会议上，马尔代夫和其他脆弱的国家推动在新的资金方面取得具体进展，以帮助它们应对与气候变化有关的灾害和长期损害，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月在格拉斯哥举行的下一轮谈判将产生更好的结果。

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.

马尔代夫是世界上地势最低的国家之一，超过80%的马尔代夫土地海拔低于平均海平面1米，这使得其约53万人口极易受到风暴潮、海浪和恶劣天气的影响。

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，印度洋海啸摧毁了这个穆斯林占多数的邦，造成了大约4.7亿美元的经济损失，相当于印度国内生产总值的62%。海啸还摧毁了基础设施，包括唯一一个关闭了几天的国际机场。