
Ignorance has consequences. Idiot ignored Hurricane Irene forecast. image: Oregon Inlet Idiots
The North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission has found a solution to the political impasse posed by the conflict between science, which predicts the acceleration of sea level rise as the glaciers of western Antarctica collapse into the Southern Ocean, and Republican, money-driven politics tied to coastal development.
The Coastal Commission voted to ignore long-term sea level rise. The Commission voted, with one lone dissent, to limit the period of consideration of sea level rise to 30 years. Keeping the period to 30 years allowed the Commission to avoid considering the consequences of the collapse of west Antarctic glaciers, the speed up of the melting of Greenland's ice cap and the slowing of the Gulf Stream. This vote will end the conflict between the Republican dominated state legislature and the Commission that happened in 2010 when the Commission's panel of experts predicted as much as 5 feet of sea level rise by 2100. The legislature rejected that report and prohibited state and local government offices from considering the possibility that sea level rise would accelerate.
Many critics of the panel's earlier forecast had attacked its premise that the recent slow rate of sea-level rise would begin a dramatic acceleration sometime later in this century. They ridiculed a "hockey stick" curve used to portray a rapid rise that would submerge much of the coast by 2100.
But there should be little disagreement next year, commissioners and scientists agreed Thursday, when the advisory panel of geologists and engineers issues a new forecast that is likely to show only a moderate increase for the next 30 years.
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/...
Ignoring the inevitable acceleration of sea level rise will allow business as usual development along North Carolina's coast. Many bridges and structures designed to last longer than 30 years will suffer the consequences of rising waters and the government will surely be asked to bail out the victims, but the inevitable damage will provide business opportunities for redevelopment at government expense. Middle class Americans will provide the disaster relief to rebuild the properties of the wealthy living along North Carolina's coast. This is a plan North Carolina's Republican legislature can support.