North Carolina’s embarrassing head-in-the-(underwater)-sand approach to sea level rise received renewed attention this morning in the national media. New York Times columnist Gail Collins included the following passage in her story about the conservative movment’s aggressive abandonment of climate science:
“But a carbon tax/fee is the key to controlling climate change. That or just letting the next generation worry about whether the Jersey Shore is going to wind up lapping Trenton. Currently, majority sentiment in Congress is to hope for the best and pass the baton to the grandchildren. (When it comes to rising-sea-level denial, the champion may be North Carolina, where the Legislature has voted to base state coastal management policy on historic trends rather than anything the current experts have to say. “This means that even though North Carolina scientists predict 39 inches of sea-level rise within the century, North Carolina, by its own law, is only allowed to prepare for 8. King Canute would be so proud,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island in a recent speech.)” (Emphasis supplied.)
Meanwhile, in case you missed it, Laura Leslie has a related story over at WRAL.com about the rather embarrassing slap that N.C. House Republican leaders dished out to two of the chief architects of the state’s sea level somnambulism — the always amusing Rep. George Cleveland and his “science” advisor, John Droz.
Droz, of course, is the self-appointed expert who was actually invited to the General Assembly earlier this year to deliver a bizarre “lecture” on the subject of global warming. Interestingly, despite his prominent outspokenness, Droz posted a request on a blog site in 2011 in which sought help from “oceanographers and/or others who have experience with sea level measurements” who might help him make his case against sea level rise.
“This is not my area of expertise,” Droz wrote.
If only he’d told the General Assembly before they made our state a national laughingstock.
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