North Carolina didn't like science on sea levels … so passed a law against it

When North Carolina got bad news about what its coast could look like thanks to climate change, it chose to ignore it.

 The Albemarle Sound floods the Nags Head-Manteo Causeway
 shortly after Hurricane Irene barreled through the Outer
Banks, North Carolina, in 2011.

In 2012, the state now in the path of Hurricane Florence reacted to a prediction by its Coastal Resources Commission that sea levels could rise by 39in over the next century by passing a law that banned policies based on such forecasts.

The legislation drew ridicule, including a mocking segment by comedian Stephen Colbert, who said: “If your science gives you a result you don’t like, pass a law saying the result is illegal. Problem solved.”

North Carolina has a long, low-lying coastline and is considered one of the US areas most vulnerable to rising sea levels.

Read the story by Erin Burkin from The Guardian - “North Carolina didn't like science on sea levels … so passed a law against it.”