Nations Wiped Off the Map Unless Warming Is Reversed by 2000
UN Official: Act by 2000 or Nations Could Vanish. Nations Report Still Present.
In 1989 a UN environment official gave governments a '10-year window' before global warming went 'beyond human control'. AP's headline: 'U.N. Predicts Disaster'.
What was claimed (paraphrase)
entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000
— Noel Brown, director of the New York office of the UN Environment Programme (as reported by AP) · said Jun 29, 1989 · due the year 2000 (deadline to act)
2000 came, the trend was not reversed, and the Maldives is still above water. The UN later set a fresh deadline for 2020, bold for a problem already 'beyond human control'.
The Story
AP story of June 29, 1989, headlined 'U.N. Predicts Disaster if Global Warming Not Checked' (the LA Times ran it June 30).
Brown told AP that rising seas would be 'enough to cover the Maldives and other flat island nations', that coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of 'eco-refugees', and that governments had 'a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control'.
The quote is AP's paraphrase of Brown.
Later spin
Snopes later rated the story authentic but called AP's framing imprecise, saying the projections behind it ran to 2100.
Receipts
- U.N. Predicts Disaster if Global Warming Not Checked - AP Newsaccessed 2026-09-29
- The World - News from June 30, 1989 - Los Angeles Timesaccessed 2026-09-29
- Did UN Official Say Nations Would Vanish If Global Warming Not Reversed by 2000? - Snopesaccessed 2026-09-29
As of Oct 9, 2026
since it didn't happen
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