W hile certain sections of the Republican Party continue to pretend environmentalists are overblowing the effects of climate change, more practical Republicans, which we in the Northeast are always grateful for, are formulating policy that acknowledges and prepares for the inevitable.

We suppose we may tend to be more concerned about our coastline than people to the south and west, who seem to be less concerned about global warming and more concerned with maintaining the profitability of fossil fuels. But even thoughtful people in those areas would admit, if they were candid, that we do have to start to prepare for rising sea levels now and not wait for events like Hurricane Sandy to force expensive reactions to damage that could have been minimized by proactively preparing for the worst.

New Yorkers got a taste of what rising seas can do when half the city went without power and other basic amenities when its underground infrastructure proved that it was not immune to what happens when water shows up where no one expected it.

Unfortunately, even the sobering effect of Hurricane Sandy, the hangover from it, seems to be fading from most of the nation’s memory, and people are reverting to thinking that we still have plenty of time to get ready for the inevitable rise in sea level.

Frankly, we don’t have that time.

While some people throw their hands up and say we can’t do anything about China and India and their headlong race to see which country can do a better job of repeating the many mistakes of the industrial revolution until even they will realize that they really gain nothing when the air they breath has become so foul that they can’t get into their new cars and drive out to the country for fresh air.

Air quality alone is enough to prompt conservation efforts on a global scale but, with every passing year, the heat of all that combustion is having a noticeable effect on sea level. Those developing countries that have not been swallowed up by rising seas will be hard-pressed to find an escape from the effects of the reckless economic growth they lust for. To snarkily paraphrase an older and much wiser adage, “What availeth a man if he gains the whole world and loseth it at the same time?” In other more contemporary words, “You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.”

Kudos to the Rhode Island agencies that are preparing for a rise in sea level, but the larger job of getting the whole world to accept the reality of climate change will remain a challenge for many more years. Let’s start now.