因海平面不断上升，印度洋岛国马尔代夫将在2100年面临陆沉，大批国民将可能无处安身。为了应对这一危机，马尔代夫政府于上月跟一家荷兰公司签约，打算建造一片海上家园，解决海平面上升后国民的安置问题。

extinction¹ 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." width="399" height="296" src="/upimg/100410/4_003836_1.jpg" />
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（考虑未来，展望未来） with plans to build homes and a golf course（高尔夫球场） that float.

An increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimeters would make the Maldives -- a nation of tiny coral islands（珊瑚岛） in the Indian Ocean -- virtually（事实上，几乎） uninhabitable（不适宜居住的） by 2100, the UN's climate change panel has warned.

President Mohamed Nasheed has vowed² 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（会展中心，会议中心） , homes and an 18-hole golf course.

"It is still early stages and we are awaiting a report on the feasibility（可行性，可能性） ," 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 immediate³ comment from the firm but its website said it undertook（着手做，承担） 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 congestion⁴（拥挤，充血） .

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（虚构的，有创造力的） ways to combat climate change.

Nasheed, who staged the world's first underwater cabinet meeting in October to highlight his people's plight⁵（困境，境况） , has even spoken of buying land elsewhere in the world to enable Maldivians to relocate if their homes are submerged（使陷入） .

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 coconut⁶（椰子） husks（外皮） .