Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Saturday, June 2nd, 2012

North Carolina Bill Would Require Coastal Communities to Ignore Global Warming Science

Author:    
Source:     Nation of Change
Publication Date:     Friday 1 June 2012
 Link: North Carolina Bill Would Require Coastal Communities to Ignore Global Warming Science
Stephan:   SR reader Larry Dossey, MD sent me this report. I wrote him back and said that my Stupid Meter wasn't calibrated to go that far. He replied, 'You have one of the old models, they're just linear. You need to get one of the new models, they're exponential.' He's right of course. My measurement for stupidity was calibrated before the rise of the Theocratic Right. It is becoming dangerous to live where their governmental policies prevail. Joe Romm is a Fellow at American Progress and is the editor of Climate Progress, which New York Times columnist Tom Friedman called 'the indispensable blog' and Time magazine named one of the 25 'Best Blogs of 2010.

Some North Carolina GOP legislators want to stop the use of science to plan for the future. They are circulating a bill that would force coastal counties to ignore actual observations and the best science-based projections in planning for future sea level rise.
King Canute thought he had the power to hold back the tide (in the apocryphal legend). These all-too-real lawmakers want to go one better and mandate a formula that projects a sea level rise of at most 12 inches this century, far below what the science now projects.

A state-appointed science panel reviewed the recent literature and reported that a 1-meter (39 inch) rise is likely by 2100. Many coastal studies experts think a level of 5 to 7 feet should be used, since you typically plan for the plausible worst-case scenario, especially with expensive, long-lived infrastructure.

The 2011 report by the National Academy of Science for the U.S. Navy on the national security implications of climate change concluded:

Based on recent peer-reviewed scientific literature, the Department of the Navy should expect roughly 0.4 to 2 meters global average sealevel rise by 2100, with a most likely value of about 0.8 meter. Projections of local sea-level […]

Read the Full Article