Below is a list of links and resources regarding the infamous North Carolina sea level rise saga. I will continue to update and will give this resource a permanent home in our sidebar. Please feel free to email me suggestions (jb@theseamonster.net) or leave them as comments below.
Start here by reading Scott Huler’s piece “NC Considers Making Sea Level Rise Illegal”
In a story first discussed by the NC Coastal Federation and given more play May 29 by the News & Observer of Raleigh and its sister paper the Charlotte Observer, a group of legislators from 20 coastal NC counties whose economies will be most affected by rising seas have legislated the words “Nuh-unh!” into the NC Constitution.
Okay, cheap shot alert. Actually all they did was say science is crazy. There is virtually universal agreement among scientists that the sea will probably rise a good meter or more before the end of the century, wreaking havoc in low-lying coastal counties. So the members of the developers’ lobbying group NC-20 say the sea will rise only 8 inches, because … because … well, SHUT UP, that’s because why.
That is, the meter or so of sea level rise predicted for the NC Coastal Resources Commission by a state-appointed board of scientists is extremely inconvenient for counties along the coast. So the NC-20 types have decided that we can escape sea level rise – in North Carolina, anyhow – by making it against the law. Or making MEASURING it against the law, anyhow.
If you don’t know much about sea level rise, start here
North Carolina Sea-Level Rise Assessment Report (PDF) and summary post (the real science)
Coastal development lobbying group NC 20 (link)
A debunking of some NC20 anti-science propaganda (link)
Sea level rise saga update 1: the state senate jumps aboard the good ship climate change denial
Sea level rise saga update 2: house sinks the senate bill
The NC House’s version of the sea level rise bill (PDF)
The NC Senate’s version of the sea level rise bill (PDF)
WURL piece on the Senate bill and NC20
Miami Herald editorial on the sea level rise shenanigans going on in NC and other states
Inside Climate News piece wondering why (unlike states in the southeastern US) California communities not only accept that the earth is warming and sea level is rising, but are actively planing adaptations for these challenges
New study reveals Cape Hatteras, NC marks the southern edge of a sea level rise hot spot (link)
A nice piece about sea level rise field research in North Carolina (link)
A new study forecasts sea level rise based on 1.5 and 2C of warming and the picture isn’t pretty (link)
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