
In 2012, North Carolina banned policies based on sea level rise forecasts - S4M
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/12/north-carolina-didnt-like-science-on-sea-levels-so-passed-a-law-against-it
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cdoxsey
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.

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manicdee
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...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-
northcarolina/north-carolina-lawmakers-reject-sea-level-rise-predictions-
idUSBRE86217I20120703)

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anticensor
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.

~~~
vixen99
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.

