Today was big day for the South Carolina Small Business Chamber in our efforts to protect our small business tourism industry from the coming impact of rising seas due to climate change.
This morning we rolled out our new sea level rise education project at a press event in Charleston. The project, called South Carolina Businesses Acting on Rising Seas (SCBARS), is a partnership with the American Sustainable Business Council that is providing the funding.
In the last several weeks the SCBARS team has been identifying businesses up and down our coast that NOAA-supplied data indicates are expected to be directly impacted by a 6-foot rise in sea level by 2100. We’ve been knocking on their doors and educating the owners about the threat.
We ask them to post signs for the tourists to make them aware of the future danger. Our goal is to turn the tourists into an army of advocates for protecting our coast by asking them to go to SCBARS.org. From the website people can send letters to their Congressional delegation and President calling on them to take action to reduce carbon pollution and transition the U.S. to a clean energy economy.
The response from these businesses has been very encouraging. This week we start delivering the signs and hopefully will get permission to place blue tape on the inside or outside of their buildings showing where the high tide will be in 2100 if nothing is done about climate change.
While this was going on in Charleston, I was meeting with the Myrtle Beach Sun News editorial board to tell them about SCBARS.
It was a good day for our small business tourism industry and with the help of our SCBARS project hopefully there will be more good days for future generations of coastal small businesses.