Will Hurricane Florence Force North Carolina to Face Rising Sea Levels?

Posted on by September 13, 2018

In 2010, a North Carolina state commission report predicted that sea levels on the state’s coast could rise as much as 39 inches by the year 2100, flooding billions of dollars’ worth of real estate and crippling much of the state’s economy. Instead of taking action to mitigate the damage, the state legislature passed laws in 2012 saying that the new predictions could not be used for public planning. Only historical data could be used, seriously underestimating the effects of climate change. The politicians effectively chose to support development rather than science. In the meantime, the population on the North Carolina coast is growing rapidly, increasing by half in the last two decades. 

North Carolina is not alone. The administration of Gov. Rick Scott of Florida has discouraged even the use of terms like “climate change” and “global warming” in official communications. The current occupant of the Oval Office calls climate change a “hoax.”

Orrin H. Pilkey, a retired Duke University coastal geologist, wrote in an essay titled, “Sea-level rise is here. North Carolina needs to act” in the News & Observer, “We must take the long view and respond now to the rising sea in a planned fashion. Currently, the unspoken plan is to wait until the situation is catastrophic and then respond.” 

Now, Hurricane Florence is battering the Carolina coast. Major, perhaps catastrophic, flooding is expected. The extent of the damage from the storm could be historically horrific. Will Hurricane Florence be enough to force North Carolinian politicians to face the reality of climate change and take action?  

Comments

Will Hurricane Florence Force North Carolina to Face Rising Sea Levels? — 3 Comments

  1. What they know and what they say are probably not related as long as the status quo is profitable to them.
    Does anyone check the small print on realty (property sale) contracts?
    When we were getting a licence to rebuild our sailing club jetty we made sure the contract would protect us from rising sea levels preventing its use, even adding what is called south-east land tilt (England is sinking whilst Scotland is rising as a consequence of the glaciers melting after the last ice age).

  2. Ideally, politicians are those we appoint to behave as our “adults in the room,” those whom we agree may tell us “no” in order to check impulse that can’t really be termed “worst” as they’re only human nature. We want things we can’t have, are inclined to thoughtless expedience, so we formalize the process of being told “no you may not,” make it acceptable by being a matter of consensus.

    This is how we have developed a pretty reliable system of ensuring that– for instance– our neighbor’s sewer pipe does not empty at our property line, nor ours at their’s. Other examples abound. It’s why we use the term “governance.” An engine without a governor may explode messily, and a society without effective governance is guaranteed to do so.

    North Carolina and Florida represent an almost complete inversion of the ideal scenario. Instead of helping us behave as adults, so-called “leadership” is doing the parental equivalent of heading to Las Vegas with the family savings while handing the kids keys to the cars and the liquor cabinet.

    It can end nicely or nastily. That outcome is entirely in our control as we’re blessed with ability to replace our agreed “parents” at any time, by voting.