Getting rise-ready

Thank you for printing Andy Keeler’s thoughtful approach to addressing the potential effects of climate change (“Making sense of rising sea levels,” Other Opinion, June 14). As climate change brings more and more uncertainty into what we think we know of how the natural world will behave, preparation for hazards such as coastal and lowland flooding will become far more challenging.

In light of this, Keeler’s call for adaptive strategies is eminently rational. Quite simply, we do not know what we do not know about how the effects of climate change and sea level rise will play out. Now is the time to develop a policy consensus to act as these changes reveal themselves, not to pretend the issue doesn’t exist or lock future generations into a position based on incomplete information.

Richard Little

Pinehurst

The writer is a Senior Fellow in the Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California