Unum
2018-09-12 21:12:58 UTC
Apparently, shoving your head up your ass won't keep your coastline
from getting flooded.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/north-carolina-sea-level-rise-hurricane-florence_us_5b985a87e4b0162f4731da0e?8r
In 2012, North Carolina legislators passed a bill that barred policymakers and
developers from using up-to-date climate science to plan for rising sea levels
on the state’s coast. Now Hurricane Florence threatens to cause a devastating
storm surge that could put thousands of lives in danger and cost the state
billions of dollars worth of damage.
“Sea level rising, simply put, makes every coastal flood deeper and more
destructive,” said Ben Strauss, CEO of Climate Central, a climate change
research organization that has published dozens of studies about rising sea
levels and the risks of ignoring the problem. “Ignoring it is incredibly
dangerous.”
“It only takes a few extra inches of water depth to be the difference between
a ruined floor and no damage, or a ruined electrical system and just a ruined
floor,” Strauss said. “Floods tend to be a great deal more destructive and
costly than homeowners anticipate.”
Sea level rise can also affect the severity of hurricanes, said William Sweet,
an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “If
you compared storm surge heights from the same storm at the same location over
several decades, the surge would be higher ― assuming no change in flood
defenses ― because of sea level rise,” Sweet said.
But in North Carolina, lawmakers chose to ignore the threats. A panel of
scientists on the state Coastal Resources Commission issued a dire warning in
March 2010, estimating that the sea levels along the state’s coast would rise
39 inches over the next century. Conservative lawmakers and business interest
groups feared the report would hurt lucrative real estate development on the
state’s coast and sought to undermine it.
Conservative state Rep. Pat McElraft, whose top campaign contributors were the
North Carolina Association of Realtors and the North Carolina Home Builders’
Association, drafted a bill in response that rejected the panel’s predictions.
McElraft introduced the bill in April 2011, and it passed the legislature in
the summer of 2012.
Part of the bill stipulated that state and local agencies must also refer to
historical linear predictions of sea level rise rather than current research,
and another alarming section required that research look only at 30-year
predictions rather than at a century, as the CRC report had done. Supporters
of the bill saw short-term benefits in more affordable insurance, and
continued opportunities for real estate development and tourism along the
attractive coast. Critics saw the long-term consequences of damaged homes and
businesses and vast swaths of the state being swallowed by floods.
Environmental scientists, coastal researchers and a number of lawmakers called
the measure a blatant denial of crucial climate science and criticized
then-Gov. Bev Perdue (D) for not acting on the bill and therefore allowing it
to become law.
climate change has “supercharged” recent storms, as HuffPost’s Chris D’Angelo
reported on Friday, putting Florence on track to do as much, if not more,
damage than last year’s Hurricane Harvey, which devastated parts of Texas and
Louisiana.
“It is fair to say that the very same factors are likely at play here, namely
very warm ocean temperatures and an anomalous jet stream pattern favoring
stalled weather systems,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at
Pennsylvania State University.
from getting flooded.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/north-carolina-sea-level-rise-hurricane-florence_us_5b985a87e4b0162f4731da0e?8r
In 2012, North Carolina legislators passed a bill that barred policymakers and
developers from using up-to-date climate science to plan for rising sea levels
on the state’s coast. Now Hurricane Florence threatens to cause a devastating
storm surge that could put thousands of lives in danger and cost the state
billions of dollars worth of damage.
“Sea level rising, simply put, makes every coastal flood deeper and more
destructive,” said Ben Strauss, CEO of Climate Central, a climate change
research organization that has published dozens of studies about rising sea
levels and the risks of ignoring the problem. “Ignoring it is incredibly
dangerous.”
“It only takes a few extra inches of water depth to be the difference between
a ruined floor and no damage, or a ruined electrical system and just a ruined
floor,” Strauss said. “Floods tend to be a great deal more destructive and
costly than homeowners anticipate.”
Sea level rise can also affect the severity of hurricanes, said William Sweet,
an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “If
you compared storm surge heights from the same storm at the same location over
several decades, the surge would be higher ― assuming no change in flood
defenses ― because of sea level rise,” Sweet said.
But in North Carolina, lawmakers chose to ignore the threats. A panel of
scientists on the state Coastal Resources Commission issued a dire warning in
March 2010, estimating that the sea levels along the state’s coast would rise
39 inches over the next century. Conservative lawmakers and business interest
groups feared the report would hurt lucrative real estate development on the
state’s coast and sought to undermine it.
Conservative state Rep. Pat McElraft, whose top campaign contributors were the
North Carolina Association of Realtors and the North Carolina Home Builders’
Association, drafted a bill in response that rejected the panel’s predictions.
McElraft introduced the bill in April 2011, and it passed the legislature in
the summer of 2012.
Part of the bill stipulated that state and local agencies must also refer to
historical linear predictions of sea level rise rather than current research,
and another alarming section required that research look only at 30-year
predictions rather than at a century, as the CRC report had done. Supporters
of the bill saw short-term benefits in more affordable insurance, and
continued opportunities for real estate development and tourism along the
attractive coast. Critics saw the long-term consequences of damaged homes and
businesses and vast swaths of the state being swallowed by floods.
Environmental scientists, coastal researchers and a number of lawmakers called
the measure a blatant denial of crucial climate science and criticized
then-Gov. Bev Perdue (D) for not acting on the bill and therefore allowing it
to become law.
climate change has “supercharged” recent storms, as HuffPost’s Chris D’Angelo
reported on Friday, putting Florence on track to do as much, if not more,
damage than last year’s Hurricane Harvey, which devastated parts of Texas and
Louisiana.
“It is fair to say that the very same factors are likely at play here, namely
very warm ocean temperatures and an anomalous jet stream pattern favoring
stalled weather systems,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at
Pennsylvania State University.
