....southern dumb:

Sea Level Bill Would Allow North Carolina to Stick Its Head in the Sand
A bill moving through the state legislature would allow developers to
ignore sea level predictions based on global warming


Wading into the turbulent debate over global warming, North Carolina's
state legislature is considering a bill that would require the
government to ignore new reports of rising sea levels and predictions of
ocean and climate scientists.

*Business interests* along the state's coastline pushed lawmakers to
include language in a law that would require future sea level estimates
to be based only on data from past years. New evidence, especially on
sea level rise that could be tied to global warming, would not be
factored into the state's development plans for the coast.

"We're skeptical of the rising sea level science," says Tom Thompson,
chairman of NC-20, an economic development group representing the
state's 20 coastal counties. "Our concern is that the economy could be
tremendously impacted by a hypothetical number with nothing but
computers and speculation."

That 'hypothetical number' came from the state’s Coastal Resources
Commission, which recommended planning around a 39-inch rise in sea
level by 2100. At the behest of NC-20 and coastal governments, the
commission decided to remove the number from its policy entirely.

"Originally we did have the 39-inch recommendation, but the commission
chose to remove that," says Michele Walker, spokeswoman for the North
Carolina Coastal Resources Commission. "We got a lot of pushback from
coastal governments and groups who were concerned that would hurt their
ability to develop in their communities."

The bill is still in its early stages, but the section stirring up
controversy states:

"These rates shall only be determined using historical data, and these
data shall be limited to the time period following the year 1900. Rates
of seas-level rise may be extrapolated linearly…"

The parts about using only historical data, which shows a slow, linear
sea-level rise—not the faster increases associated with global
warming—have drawn the most ire from scientists.

"Cleary they don't understand science at all – (sea level rise) hasn't
been linear," says Stan Riggs, a professor at East Carolina University
who is an expert on the state's coastline. "To put blinders on and just
say we don't accept what's happening on our coast is absolutely criminal."

"But the people that live out there that aren't developers are all on
board. It's the managers and developers who want to keep the status quo.
They're making a lot of money off of it," Riggs added.

- - -

Ignorance and stupidity, backed up by commercial greed. Here's an
idea...let the business owners who want to build in the future flood
zone pay for their own infrastructure *and* force them to self insure so
taxpayers and policy holders elsewhere don't end up paying for their folly.