Political satirist to unfavourable climate science is simple: 鈥淚f your science gives you a result that you don鈥檛 like, pass a law saying that the result is illegal. Problem solved.鈥�
Legislators in North Carolina are apparently of the same mindset. When a announced that North Carolinians could expect 39 inches of sea-level rise by 2100, the Senate responded with a . Instead, the legislators would like to see coastal management use only a linear model, which predicts a mere 8-inch rise by the same year.
The 8-inch model, based solely on historical records from the last 100 years, flies in the face of modern climate science. Sea level rise is due to a combination of climate-driven factors: . The combined feedback makes for exponential 鈥� not linear 鈥� growth. Yet the North Carolina bill states: 鈥淩ates of sea-level rise may be extrapolated linearly to estimate future rates of rise but shall not include scenarios of accelerated rates of sea-level rise.鈥�
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鈥淭his is unprecedented,鈥� says , professor emeritus of geology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the first time a law has dictated the shape of a curve.鈥�
, the group behind the bill, has argued that incorporating the 39-inch predictions would be an enormous economic burden on coastal communities. 鈥淭he legislature has declined to face the problem of what we鈥檙e going to do about it, and instead has attacked the science,鈥� contends Pilkey.
Though and seems poised to make a smooth run through the House, Pilkey and other climate scientists are hoping that the governor will veto it.
