This is true; a fact Climate Realism has repeatedly discussed. Atolls in particular are known to grow with rising water levels, this has been known for years if not decades.

The NYT climate reporter, Raymond Zhong, explains that as "the planet warms and the oceans rise, atoll nations like the Maldives, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu have seemed doomed to vanish, like the mythical Atlantis, into watery oblivion."

This is an exceptionally common claim from the climate alarmist media, and some of the nations themselves that are benefitting from massive aid packages and "reparations" from wealthier countries; money not be used to help their people relocate from the "sinking" islands, but rather to build infrastructure and boost tourism. In fact, the NYT promoted this falsehood as late as April 2024, with a story, titled, "Why Time Is Running Out Across the Maldives' Lovely Little Islands."

In his most recent piece Zhong writes:

"Of late, though, scientists have begun telling a surprising new story about these islands. By comparing mid-20th century aerial photos with recent satellite images, they've been able to see how the islands have evolved over time. What they found is startling: Even though sea levels have risen, many islands haven't shrunk. Most, in fact, have been stable. Some have even grown."

It is true that the islands are not sinking, but Zhong is wrong when he says this fact has only been discovered "of late." His own article references a study published in 2018, which found 89 percent of islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans increased in area or were stable, and only 11 percent showed any sign of contracting. So just three months after the NYT published an article claiming the Maldives were disappearing beneath the waves, the paper is now reversing itself based on research that existed six years before the April article was published. Since, Climate Realism has covered the claim many times, including with regard to Tuvaluan "refugees," looking at tropical storms, and examining other island refugee claims, one wonders whether the NYT's fact checkers were asleep on the job when the paper published its false story in April.