NC Barrier Islands Under Climate Gun, State Legislature Hears

[hatrack]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Rising sea levels mean an uncertain future for North Carolina's fragile barrier islands, especially if the development boom continues, a geologist told a legislative panel Tuesday. "Some of these islands are going down fast," Stanley Riggs of East Carolina University told the Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change. "If we want this for something beyond our present generation ... we're going to have to take care better care of it."

The commission is examining if or how North Carolina should prepare for a warming planet and is working to provide recommendations to the General Assembly by November. Members and speakers differ starkly over whether the use of carbon-based fuels is to blame for increasing temperatures and if a dramatic reduction in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will steady Earth's climate.

Average atmospheric temperatures rose about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the 20th century and could rise several times that amount this century, prompting an 18-inch rise in ocean levels. Riggs, a commission member who has extensively studied the state's coastline and estuarine areas, said the Outer Banks could look dramatically different start in only a few decades if the warming pattern continues.

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Robert Balling, a geography professor from Arizona State University, questioned whether new laws or regulations for such a small part of the world's population would matter. "You can do anything you like and it will have no impact on the global CO2 levels," he said during a break.

EDIT

http://www.nbc17.com/news/7791333/detail.html

Yes, by all means, as the science piles up in massive mountains of peer-reviewed evidence, let's rush the Global Climate Coalition's favorite geography professor into the breach!

:eyes:

[supernova]

1. Oh hell, I wish Orrin Pilkey was still young

He's been a tireless defender of the OBX. But he's really getting up there. We need another advocate, especially now.

[blindpig]

2. It doesn't bear thinking about.

So many of my favorite places are barrier islands or near the coast: Hatteras, Bull Island, Cumberland Island, the Everglades, Apalachicola, SC Low Country. All are doomed, if the goddamned developers don't get them the ocean will. So many unique life forms, fucking doomed.:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[woodsprite]

3. OBX is our favorite. We camp there each year for 2-3 wks. n/t