By Andy Brack
If quick-moving but deadly Hurricane Helene has anything to teach us, it’s that monster storms can get anyone, not just people along the coast.
Helene’s horrific landfall in Florida led to a drenching, tornado-laden swath that cut through Georgia and the Carolinas before it dumped water and flooded mid-South states.
It’s a solid reminder that bad storms are intensifying as the climate warms, something climate change deniers will have a hard time refuting as their neighbors discard everything from soggy mattresses to flooded vehicles.
Bottom line: All governments and people need to make smarter decisions in dealing with what’s happening to our climate.
As individuals and families, we can reduce energy use and try to add renewable forms of energy to avoid carbon-rich coal, oil and gas. Switch to energy-efficient appliances. Insulate your home better. Change to LED lightbulbs, if you haven’t already. Walk more. Eat more vegetables, grains, fruits and nuts to lower consumption of meat, which requires more energy to produce. Follow the Rs of conservation – reduce, reuse and recycle. In your yard, create a rain garden to store water. It’s not a tough job to find ideas on ways to save energy. And the bonus is you likely will save money too.
As taxpayers, we can demand local and state governments do more and be smarter about how they spend money for services. Instead of doing things the way they’ve always been done, explore new ideas and invest in new possibilities.
For example, is it really smart in Charleston County to extend an interstate highway on the ground for $2.4 billion of local taxpayer dollars when there’s so much that needs to be done to protect the county from the impacts of increased flooding caused by monster storms like Hurricane Helene or this year’s earlier Tropical Storm Debby?
So it’s encouraging that Gov. Henry McMaster this week launched an effort for the state to do something new about water. It’s now crafting a fresh strategic water effort to ensure South Carolina has a good plan to manage its ground and surface waters in the years ahead.
“South Carolina has been richly blessed with abundant water resources, but with increased demand driven by historic economic development and a booming population, we must take action now to ensure these resources are managed in the best interests of all South Carolinians,” McMaster said. “The formation of WaterSC will unite South Carolina’s top minds and key stakeholders to craft a plan that balances our economic and environmental interests, which will ensure that our water resources are plentiful and that our economy remains strong for generations to come.”
But just as we need to be smarter with how we deal with water in the future, we need to make sure we effectively plan and are smart in dealing with generating power responsibly, not letting South Carolina’s power generators control the conversation in the next legislative session like they tried to do so this year.
Our state’s – and world’s – thirst for power has to take into account more renewables and less carbon-based power. We’ve got to reduce greenhouse gasses, not continue 19th century strategies that send climate-warming carbon into the atmosphere.
We’ve got to figure out better ways to get around, grow food, keep the economy strong and build homes – all while maintaining one of the best qualities of life in the world.
Otherwise, we’ll just keep cleaning up from storms like Helene and Debby. And what was it Einstein may have said about insanity? “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Let’s not be insane about what’s happening to our climate. Only we can make changes that will cool the ocean’s waters and reduce the intensity of storms like Helene.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send it to feedback@statehousereport.com.
