I wrote on Nov. 4 about a new era in the Maldives, but it appears that the new era may be something else again. According to multiple press reports, new president-elect Mohamed Nasheed wants to buy a new homeland for his people to give them a place to go if the sea rises as predicted because of global warming.

The UN forecasts that the sea could rise as much as two feet by 2100, and since most of the Maldives is less than five feet above sea level (many areas are less than three feet), life will be precarious there.

Nasheed intends to set aside money from tourism in a sovereign wealth fund to buy land for his citizens, ideally in a country with a similar culture and climate. So far he’s approached India, Sri Lanka, and Australia. All appear to be open to the idea.

So now my personal interest in seeing the Maldives has gone up a notch: I need to get there not just while I can, but while they’re still there.

They’d been pulling at me since I first encountered them on a globe many years before and I’d traveled there many times in my imagination. Standing in the tropical breeze that day I knew I couldn’t visit them this time, but was certain I’d get there one day.

That day still hasn’t arrived, but I’ve started thinking about them again. On October 28 the Maldives held its first ever multiparty elections and tossed out the incumbent president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had ruled the country for the last 30 years. The new president, Mohamed Nasheed, had been a political prisoner for part of that time, imprisoned by the president he defeated.

It’s the beginning of a new era, and one of Nasheed’s first promises was to open up the entire archipelago to tourism. Currently foreigners are allowed only on specific atolls developed for tourism and in the capital, Malé. The restrictions were put in place to protect the Maldives’ Islamic culture from Western influences, but Nasheed believes the ban is out of touch with today’s world.

Maybe when I do go I’ll be able to see and do a lot more than would have been possible otherwise. Or maybe I should hurry, before the islands draw too many more people who dream of the Maldives, like me.