Some state legislators are still fighting the global warming battle that they lost last year when they failed to stop the use of scientific data to predict how much the sea will rise along the coastline. That battle ended in a stalemate, with a four-year moratorium on the Coastal Resources Commission authorizing sea-level forecasts to be used as the basis for regulations, while the issue is studied.
Rep. George Cleveland, a five-term Republican from Jacksonville, invited fellow lawmakers to hear a presentation in the statehouse auditorium by John Droz on Wednesday. Several dozen legislators and others showed up to hear Droz, who was scientific adviser to the group of 20 counties that tried to tie sea-level rise predictions to historic trends rather than climate science that predicts a faster rise and a bigger impact on coastal development.
Droz, who lives in Morehead City, has degrees in physics, mathematics and solid state science. A fellow of the conservative American Traditions Institute (whose motto is “Restoring science, accountability and liberty to the environmental policy debate”), he is a frequent speaker promoting the idea that political interests have corrupted science to their own advantage.
