North Carolina Wants To Censor Science

So, you’re a coastal state. However you feel about climate change, there are certain immutable facts that you have to deal with, like rising sea levels that will cause serious problems. Do you work on handling the inevitable, or do you pass the legal equivalent of “no u” to scientists pointing out the water is, uh, starting to rise?

If you’ve read the headline, you’ve probably figured out what North Carolina’s fine legislators are trying to do.

You might be wondering what they’re thinking and the answer is…money! The bill would require sea level rates to be determined using only historical data from after 1900, which would indicate a rise of eight inches. This is highly pleasing to coastal developers, who really do not want to hear that the sea will, according to science, rise by about a meter, because that means they can’t sell coastal homes to rich people and then run away with their money really fast. For those of you playing the home game, that would be roughly five times as high of a rise in sea levels as predicted by the law currently on the table.

So, basically, North Carolina and its fine politicians believe if they plug their ears and scream loudly enough, the laws of nature will magically reverse themselves. The moral of the story? Don’t buy coastal property in North Carolina.

image of the Galileo eye-roll via tonynetone on Flickr