Climate op-ed misses the point

In a recent column, Beaufort County Councilman Mike Covert said the Paris climate accords were bad for Americans. While the economic issues are debatable, I am concerned by his distortion of the climate change issue.

He called the “Kigali Agreement” a “disaster.” The U.S. and 196 other countries agreed to amend the Montreal Protocols to phase out certain coolants/refrigerants (hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs) that are much more potent than CO2 in aggravating global warming. Kigali was supported by the coolants industry, which is developing less-damaging substitutes. Phasing out HFCs is a key step in retarding global warming, which will take several decades. It will take longer now that we’ve pulled out of the Paris agreement.

Climate change is happening here and now. A recent article in this newspaper, “Coastal flooding increasing by ‘leaps and bounds’ in South Carolina, Georgia,” reported that tidal flooding struck Charleston 50 days and struck Savannah 38 days from May 2016 through April 2017. Those numbers were up from 38 flood days in Charleston in 2015, which was a previous record, and 34 flood days in Savannah in 2015.

Beaufort County’s website links to a “Sea Level Rise Adaptation Report,” prepared by S.C. Sea Grant Consortium and joined by County Council and other stakeholders. It discusses the local impacts of rising sea levels and what can be done to “increase the county’s resiliency.” (Click the “Archives” tab at the bottom of the County Government homepage, then click through “county-government” to “public-works” then to “stormwater, drainage and water quality archives.”)

This story was originally published July 18, 2017 at 9:44 AM with the headline "Climate op-ed misses the point."