The Maldives are neither the "south sea islands" nor are they in the Pacific Ocean.
That doesn't mean the Pacific-derived data isn't relevant, but it really behooves any secondary or even primary authors to get their geography correct.
Furthermore it is certainly legitimate for the government of the Maldives to be concerned about sea level rise since the majority of the inhabited atolls are only a few feet above mean sea level, and even a few inches of mean rise equates to catastrophic inundation in rare storm or tsunami events.
Of course reactionary politics, as we are seeing in the US, always exacerbates fear as a means of political extortion, and that is what this article is meant to expose. It's just that the critical journalism and technical relay should have been pressed in a more rigorous manner.
I stand behind the article and the science behind it. Mike Fox is right on here. You can debate semantics if you like... but keep this in mind, forget all the nicitees... what if Fox is correct. If he is, then the whole GW fraud is just that. a Fraud. The Oceans are all connected. they are not separate bodies of water. For seal levels to rise anywhere it is going to have to be on a global level. The President of the Maldives is trying to get MONEY. Its a PR stunt to get money. Lets talk about THAT for a minute instead of nitpicking some detail you disagree with.
This is not reactionary politics, this is a group of people out to steal funds from American taxpayers to line their own and their friends pockets with.
Lets start calling a spade a spade!