因海平面不斷上升，印度洋島國馬爾代夫將在2100年面臨陸沉，大批國民將可能無處安身。為了應對這一危機，馬爾代夫政府于上月跟一家荷蘭公司簽約，打算建造一片海上家園，解決海平面上升后國民的安置問題。據悉，這個項目將包括一個18洞的高爾夫球場，一個會議中心以及民居建筑，目前還在可行性研究階段。馬爾代夫在1997年就曾經在首都馬累附近修造人工島來緩解人口擁擠的狀況，除此之外，馬爾代夫總統還曾經表示會考慮在其他國家購買土地來安置本國國民。

This aerial picture taken on September 7, 2009 shows the artificial island known as Hulhumale, built near Male, capital of the Indian Ocean atoll nation of the Maldives. The Maldives faces the threat of extinction from rising sea levels, but the government said on Thursday it was looking to the future with plans to build homes and a golf course that float.

The Maldives faces the threat of extinction from rising sea levels, but the government said on Thursday it was looking to the future with plans to build homes and a golf course that float.

An increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimeters would make the Maldives -- a nation of tiny coral islands in the Indian Ocean -- virtually uninhabitable by 2100, the UN's climate change panel has warned.

President Mohamed Nasheed has vowed a fight for survival, and last month he signed a deal with a Dutch company to study proposals for a floating structure that could support a convention centre, homes and an 18-hole golf course.

"It is still early stages and we are awaiting a report on the feasibility," a government official who declined to be named said.

The company, Dutch Docklands, is currently building floating developments in the Netherlands and Dubai.

There was no immediate comment from the firm but its website said it undertook projects that make "land from water by providing large-scale floating constructions to create similar conditions as on land".

The Maldives began work on an artificial island known as the Hulhumale near the crowded capital island of Male in 1997 and more than 30,000 people have been settled there to ease congestion.

The city, which has a population of 100,000, is already protected from rising sea levels by a 30-million-dollar sea wall, and the government is considering increasingly imaginative ways to combat climate change.

Nasheed, who staged the world's first underwater cabinet meeting in October to highlight his people's plight, has even spoken of buying land elsewhere in the world to enable Maldivians to relocate if their homes are submerged.

He has also pledged to turn his nation into a model for the rest of the world by becoming "carbon neutral" by 2020.

His plan involves ending fossil fuel use and powering all vehicles and buildings from "green" sources such as burning coconut husks.

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(Agencies)

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）