Ocean water rushes down Cape Hatteras Pier Drive in Frisco, N.C., on Hatteras Island as the effects of Hurricane Florence reach the area on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018. (Steve Earley /The Virginian-Pilot via AP) (Steve Earley | The Virginian-Pilot/AP)

There is plenty of debate among scientists about the extent to which you can blame climate change for ferocious hurricanes. But one thing they do not disagree on is that climate change contributes to sea surge. In the case of Hurricane Florence and the Carolinas, some six inches of the coming storm surge is attributable to climate change because sea levels have risen in the last 100 years or so.

“Essentially every coastal flood today is made deeper and more damaging by sea-level rise caused…