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| The Outer Banks area of North Carolina where storm damage shows how vulnerable coastal locations are. Photo cCredit: University of Pennsylvania |
By Richard Schiffman, Common Dreams, June 5, 2012
Once upon a time, the great King Canute, strolling on a
beach with his courtiers, ordered the waves to halt. Yet they kept on coming.
It was a lesson intended for the monarch's fawning sycophants. Canute was
showing them that there are limits to power. Even a king can't stop the sea!
The
Outer Banks area of North Carolina where storm damage shows how vulnerable
coastal locations are. (Credit: University of Pennsylvania)
This lesson seems to have been lost on the members of
North Carolina's legislature. They are getting ready to vote on a bill that
would prohibit government agencies from preparing for the estimated three feet
rise in coastal sea levels which a state-appointed science panel has predicted
will occur before the end of the current century.
Not only that, but the forecast of the experts may soon
be stricken from the public record-- because it takes into account the impact
of Global Warming. And Global Warming isn't happening, right?
Sounds like something you would read in the satirical
weekly, the Onion. But no, it's right there in the Charlotte Observer, North
Carolina's leading newspaper. The headline reads: "Coastal N.C. counties fighting sea-level rise
prediction." These counties, the paper says, have banded together to
pressure the state's lawmakers to excise the bad news about the ocean from the
report of the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission.
And they appear likely to win this fight against climate
science, according to the Observer. If the Republican dominated legislature
votes as expected, scientists will be prohibited from factoring in the
anticipated impact of climate change and the accelerating melting of the polar
icecaps on Carolina's low-lying coastal communities. By legislative decree, the state's own researchers will be forced to base their
predictions solely on historical climate data, rather than the acceleration of
global warming that climatologists expect to occur in the coming decades.
Why are these politicos forcing the hand of the
scientists? Because, let's face it, North Carolina, home to Cape Hatteras and
the roughly 2 thousand square miles of low-lying coastlands, could stand to
lose millions in developer dollars if the news about rising sea levels got out.
Never mind that the news already is out, and that science
can't be nullified by the state legislature of North Carolina. Never mind that
continuing to build up this hurricane and storm-surge alley is inviting
disaster-- even at current sea-levels.
What's
proposed is just crazy for a state that used to be a leader in marine
science," East Carolina University geologist Stan Riggs who studies the
evolution of the coast told the Observer. "You can't legislate the ocean, and you can't legislate
storms."
But apparently you can in North Carolina,
which is bent on adopting the ostrich with its head in the sand mode of
governance. If you don't admit that you have a problem, maybe you won't have to
deal with it. The Observer reports that several local governments on the coast are not
waiting for the legislature to act. They have already passed their own
resolutions against sea-level rise policies.
Yet increasing beach erosion on Hatteras in recent years
is evidence that higher seas are already taking their toll in the Tarheel
state.
"As
a result of the acceleration of outlet glaciers over large regions, the ice
sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are already contributing more and faster to
sea level rise than anticipated," according to Eric Rignot of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "If this trend
continues, we are likely to witness sea level rise 1 meter or more by year
2100", he adds, citing a figure which-- while alarming enough-- is
regarded as being rather conservative in some scientific circles.
Based on the growing consensus of scientific opinion,
other coastal states are now dealing more realistically with climate change in
their contingency planning. Maine is preparing for a 2 meter sea level rise by
2100, Delaware anticipates 1.5 meters, Louisiana 1 meter and California 1.4
meters. Southeastern Florida is looking for a 2-foot rise by 2060. North
Carolina, by contrast, expects to be exempt from the sea's advance, and plans
for only an 8 inches rise by the end of the present century.
Good
luck North Carolina in your goofy tilting at the climate change windmill. But
when your emergency preparedness plans come up disastrously short, your
insurance costs shoot through the roof, and your brand new coastal developments
get swept out to sea, don't come crying to the rest of us to bail you out.
Richard Schiffman is the author of two books and a former
journalist whose work has appeared in, amongst other outlets, the New York
Times and on a variety of National Public Radio shows including Morning Edition
and All Things Considered.
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