Listen to former Vice President Al Gore and people with similar views about global warming, and you might expect coastal North Carolinians to float away in the not-too-distant future. All that warming could lead coastal sea levels to rise more than three feet — submerging a large chunk of eastern North Carolina.

But David Burton, member of the N.C. Sea Level Rise Risk Management Study Advisory Committee, says those fears are overblown. He explained why during a presentation today to the John Locke Foundation’s Shaftesbury Society.

In the video clip below, Burton offered one reason why hard scientific facts have yet to persuade some people that their sea-level predictions are wrong.

2:10 p.m. update: Click play below to watch the full 53:51 event.

You’ll find other John Locke Foundation video presentations here.