Geo Quiz

For today’s Geo Quiz, we’re looking for an island nation that swears in its first democratically elected president tomorrow.

This country off the coast of India and Sri Lanka is made up of twelve hundred islands and atolls.

It’s a popular seaside resort, but it’s at risk from rising seas.

To put it another way, the country’s highest point is the LOWEST in the world. And that has the new president very worried. So worried, he’s shopping for a new homeland.

Mohamed NasheedMohamed Nasheed

So can you name this Asian archipelago?

For today’s Geo Quiz, we were looking for an Asian island nation on the hunt for some new real estate.

The answer is the Maldives.

That’s where a new president takes office tomorrow. And at the top of his agenda is climate change. The average elevation of the Maldives is less than five feet above sea level.

Male, MaldivesMale, Maldives

And climate change could put many parts of the country underwater. The president elect plans to devote part of the country’s multi-million dollar tourist revenue to buying some new land. His spokesman is Ibrahim Hussein Zaki.

?Where we have an insurance by investing in land in a close by country, so that in the unlikely event, if anything happened to the Maldives and their people, they have an option of transferring them.?

Transferring displaced residents to what would effectively be a new home, possibly in India or Sri Lanka. Shopping for a new country is a drastic step, but the president elect says he prefers to act now.

He says he doesn’t want to see Maldivians living in tents as climate change refugees.