Is there a greater indictment of a field of scientific endeavor than to be so far from the facts and reality that legislation must be introduced to preclude its use by scam artists and misanthropic greens? Of course the LA Times’ Patt Morrison views it somewhat differently:
On what political tout sheet is North Carolina listed as a swing state?
Because it looks like it’s already swung, and not in the direction of the Democrats, who hold their convention there in September.
First came last month’s vote to put a ban on same-sex marriage in the state’s Constitution (a San Diego church has put up a billboard in Charlotte, the site of the Democratic convention, apologizing for the “narrow-minded, judgmental, deceptive, manipulative” vote).
Now the state’s Legislature is considering a law that would, for all intents and purposes, give all the legislators doctorates in climatology. Because the law allows the Legislature to decide what is useful scientific data and what isn’t.
As a coastal state, North Carolina faces the same global climate challenges of rising sea levels and turbulent weather that island countries and other coastal regions have begun to confront, and to ask what to do next: Do they build walls? Draw their population inland and upland?
Here’s the NoCa solution: pretend it’s not happening. Pass a law saying it can’t happen because we say it can’t. Which is to say, ban any government agency from using the standard scientific tools like extrapolating data to figure out what’s happening, and thus avoid all those scary, silly scientific facts and figures.
Global warming? Flooding seas? Not in North Carolina. Why? Because they say so, that’s why.
News reports point out that businesses and local governments along the state’s coast lobbied for the law, which declares that only data from years past can be considered in calculating future sea levels; essentially, if it didn’t happen before, it can’t happen, period. The pending law bans using real scientific techniques and formulas about rising sea levels because that could mean rising building costs, rising insurance rates and rising restrictions on coastal building. So instead, let’s invoke wishful thinking and say it isn’t so.
The state’s Coastal Resources Commission, which looked into that soon-to-be-forbidden future, had anticipated a sea level rise of more than three feet within 90 years. The precise figure, 39 inches, has now been deleted from the commission’s policy.
Someone caught on about the value of models, but failed to recognize that historical data have all been fiddled into uselessness.
I have been trying this morning to post articles from your website on my facebook page and the url has been locked by them as”spam” each time. I guess your articles are scaring someone.
i thought you might be interested to know that i have tried this morning to post several articles from your site this morning on my facebook page. each and every one has been block as the URL was reported as “spam” i would guess that you are scaring some people out there with your attempt to educate the masses.
Aside from the fact that Professor Rob Jackson (& the LA Times along with Colbert) should be looking at the last two years of sea-level data which show declines, the law simply says that “measured” rates be used as opposed to “modeled.” If measured rates accelerate, a 2nd degree polynomial may be appropriate to best project from, but the proposed law states that “measured” data form the basis for future development restrictions.
As derisive as one may chose to be about the brain power represented in any given state capitol, the representatives of the people of that state obviously, absolutely have the right to decide which data are useful and which are not, scientific or otherwise.
Perhaps, Mr. Morrison, you’d care use your next article to expound upon the immediate and dangerous evils of the representative form of government which:
1)prevents the “enlightened elite” from simply dictating to the unclean masses;
2)keeps state & local governments in far away places like North Carolina generally beholden to the people they represent;
3)exists even in such sophisticated and enlightened places as Los Angeles, CA!
“Here’s the NoCa solution: pretend it’s not happening.”
Who’s pretending?