"Nation," began Comedy Central's fake news anchor Stephen Colbert, "there's troubling news from the so-called 'scientists.' " He made scare quotes with his fingers as he said "scientists." Colbert satirizes the right wing. Comedy Central blurbs his five-minute video clip this way: "Scientists predict an economy-destroying, 39-inch sea level rise, but North Carolina drafts a law to make it eight inches."
East Coast national newspapers have apparently not yet found the story, but Scientific American's blog posting " NC considers making sea level rise illegal " cites the Charlotte Observer's article " Coastal N.C. counties fighting sea-level rise prediction ." That long piece begins:
State lawmakers are considering a measure that would limit how North Carolina prepares for sea-level rise, which many scientists consider one of the surest results of climate change.
Federal authorities say the North Carolina coast is vulnerable because of its low, flat land and thin fringe of barrier islands. A state-appointed science panel has reported that a 1-meter rise is likely by 2100.
The calculation, prepared for the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission, was intended to help the state plan for rising water that could threaten 2,000 square miles. Critics say it could thwart economic development on just as large a scale.
A coastal economic development group called NC-20 attacked the report, insisting the scientific research it cited is flawed. The science panel last month confirmed its findings, recommending that they be reassessed every five years.
But NC-20, named for the 20 coastal counties, appears to be winning its campaign to undermine them.
The Observer also reports that the state's emergency management division has "lowered its worst-case scenario from 1 meter to 15 inches by 2100," that "several local governments on the coast have passed resolutions against sea-level rise policies," and that Republicans in the state legislature have circulated but have not introduced a bill requiring calculations to "be based only on historic trends, leaving out the accelerated rise that climate scientists widely expect this century if warming increases and glaciers melt."
The article quotes Stan Riggs, an East Carolina University geologist: "We're throwing this science out completely, and what's proposed is just crazy for a state that used to be a leader in marine science. You can't legislate the ocean, and you can't legislate storms."
It also cites John Droz, a physicist who serves as science adviser to NC-20. Droz reportedly charges that the best available science has been overlooked. The Observer quotes him: "I'm not saying these people are liars. I'm saying they have a passion for sea-level rise and they can't give it up."
Steven T. Corneliussen, a media analyst for the American Institute of Physics, monitors three national newspapers, the weeklies Nature and Science, and occasionally other publications. He has published op-eds in the Washington Post and other newspapers, has written for NASA's history program, and is a science writer at a particle-accelerator laboratory.
