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The Southeast Coastal Climate Network, an organization created by the nonprofit Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, hosted a teleconference on the rise of sea levels and the threat of global warming on the Lowcountry.
Rising Seas: Challenges and Opportunities for the Lowcountry from Open Dome Studios on Vimeo.
The network includes the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League and the South Carolina Wildlife Federation. It hopes to raise awareness among coastal communities about the threat and encourage officials to address the problem, said Stephen Smith, executive director for the alliance.
Some scientists dispute that global warming is the result of an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. They argue temperature changes are part of the natural cycle.
However, Orrin Pilkey, a professor at Duke University, contends global warming is driven by escalating carbon dioxide emissions, which cause the ocean to heat up and glaciers to melt.
As the ocean warms, it expands. As a result, sea levels are expected to rise 2.5 feet by 2050, and up to 5 feet by the end of the century, said Pilkey, an earth and ocean sciences teacher at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.
"Sea level rise is much more serious than flooding," Pilkey said. "(With those rises) you have to look at storm surges, waves that would begin to penetrate into the community and other problems such as the impact on drainage."
Erosion issues on Hilton Head and other coastal beaches also would be amplified with the rise, said Steve Moore, director of climate and energy for the S.C. Wildlife Federation.
"First you will lose dry sand beach," he said. "You'll lose houses, infrastructure and a lot of animals that depend on dry sand beach, like loggerhead sea turtles and various bird species."
Hilton Head might be in a better location to hold off sea level rise than places such as Myrtle Beach or Charleston, Pilkey said, because of its high sand volume.
But the sand won't solve all the island's problems.
"You are going to have to move buildings back or demolish them because, with 3-foot sea level rise, the shoreline will retreat significantly," Pilkey said. "At the same time, the current policy of nourishing the beach will become less and less successful."
Smith said coastal communities should not approve more beach development.
Art Vonlehe of the conservation league said state officials are evaluating proposals aimed at improving energy efficiency and increasing renewable resources -- recommendations that grew out of a 2007 report by Gov. Mark Sanford's Climate Action Committee.
"It's a game of wait-and-see, and it's up to state leaders to implement these recommendations," Vonlehe said.
Smith said addressing climate change is imperative, not only for the environment but also for the economy of the state's coastal communities.
"We've got a $15 billion tourism economy sitting right in that zone," he said. "When you look at the potential for home-grown energy and the jobs we can create, you match that against the tremendous economic losses we stand to suffer here in South Carolina. We can't afford to not address this."
