In 2012, North Carolina banned policies based on sea level rise forecasts | Hacker News Reader

In 2012, North Carolina banned policies based on sea level rise forecasts

theguardian.com

46 pointsS4M5 comments

No it didn't. It passed a law requiring regulatory agencies to use a single standard for the rate of change.

The law includes this language:

The provisions in this act shall not prohibit other State agencies, boards, commissions, other public entities or institutions, including academic institutions within The University of North Carolina, or any county, municipality, or other local public body from engaging in studies and dissemination of studies of sea-level research for nonregulatory purposes. Collaboration between academic institutions, including those within The University of North Carolina, the Division of Coastal Management, the Coastal Resources Commission, and other State agencies, boards, commissions, or other public entities or counties, municipalities, or other local public bodies regarding generally accepted, peer-reviewed scientific and statistically significant sea-level research is encouraged.

But the facts are less fun than my indignation!

You can do all the studies and climate change research you want, you're just not allowed to use those non-prohibited studies to formulate policy.

The law states that any predictions of sea level rises must be based on historical trends, and must not include any assumptions of accelerated sea level rises due to e.g.: melting ice. Further, any policies that take sea level into account must only use the officially sanctioned predictions.

So the headline is accurate: NC banned policies based on sea level rise forecasts (where the forecasts aren't the officially accepted ones based on historical trends). The main concern is real estate values, with the industry lobbying the government to hide any dire predictions that would reduce the value of beachfront real estate.

One of the analogies used at the time was "…[you can say] to your doctor, 'don't do any tests on me, and if you do tests and find something wrong you're not allowed to tell me for four years."

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-northcarolina/north-c...

This sounds very much like printing press reform, where clerics frowned upon spread information. No, you cannot censor science. Every censor will be worked around.

This is not necessarily censoring science. A prediction on the basis of theory may or may not turn out to be correct. If it's going to dictate policy then it matters if that theory has previously generated predictions bourne out by reality. If the predictions are wrong then the theory is wrong. That's the general case. I have no idea if that's happened in this case.

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