Just 4 miles from Malé, the capital city of the Maldives, lies an island that was designated as a municipal landfill. Since 1991, Thilafushi has been home to waste accumulated by the massive tourist industry in a rapidly sinking island chain. Initially there was no segregation of hazardous materials from municipal solid waste which, in addition, a lack of incinerators lead to open-air burning practices; this island is an ecological disaster. With approximately 400 tons of waste arriving at its shores daily, the island is growing by 1 square meter each day. Seeing this increasing landmass as an opportunity, entrepreneurs soon became interested in acquiring land on Thilafushi for industrial purposes. There were 22 original leases in 1997; this has has grown to 54 in 2017. Businesses include boat manufacturing, cement packing, methane gas bottling, and large scale warehousing. Most of the workers on the island are immigrants from Bangladesh, a country facing some of the most detrimental climate change consequences. 150 of those workers are permanent residents on Thilafushi. This case study presents a multidimensional environmental justice issue realized by neo-colonialism, capitalist exploitation, and an ecological toxic bomb.


This work explores the line between dystopian fiction and a possible future. It presents environmental hazards in a societally normalized way; it posits a future environmental apocalypse in a real case study. It asks us to consider: who will be the winners and losers in a future shaped by climate change with economic forces as the leading concern?