Legislators Seek Opportunity in Sea Level Rise

Local lawmakers want sea-level rise study

With its low-lying military bases and waterfront houses, Hampton Roads is more vulnerable to sea-level rise than most of the United States. Yet there is no coordinated plan to adapt to waters that, combined with slow-sinking land around the Chesapeake Bay, threaten to submerge entire neighborhoods by 2100. One Republican and six Democratic state lawmakers hope to change that with a first-of-its-kind study that would inventory what's been done and what can be done to mitigate the effects of sea level rise in coastal Virginia.

 Yes, sea level is generally rising, although there has been recent turn around, and it is currently falling.  It has been rising since the last ice age, and the rate that it is rising has not increased in recent years.

"This isn't something we can ignore. We're going to have to deal with it now," said Bryan Pennington, director of the city of Norfolk's Office of Intergovernmental Relations.

Why not?  Why does the government have to decide how to deal with it.  Why not leave it in the hands of the people who own the land.  If it's worth it to them, they can protect or build up the land (if the government will let them, always a threat, or an opportunity for graft).  Manhattan Island has experience rising sea level since colonial times, and yet the island has actually grown.  Why?  Because individual land owners decided it was worth more to improve the land than to abandon it to the sea:

What does sea level rise offer to politicians?  An excuse to exert power, which translates to increased control over others lives, and increased opportunities to make decisions that will affect lives and business, and hence peddle their influence.