Our state has a pretty good track record when it comes to environmental stewardship. Some of that is due to our next guest’s organization. Mike Switzer interviews Amy Armstrong, executive director at the South Carolina Environmental Law Project in Pawleys Island, SC. Disclaimer: SCELP is a financial supporter of SC Public Radio.
TRANSCRIPT:
Switzer: Hello and welcome to another edition of the South Carolina Business Review. This is Mike Switzer. Our state has a pretty good track record when it comes to environmental stewardship, and some of that is due to our next gift guests organization. Amy Armstrong is executive director at the South Carolina Environmental Law Project, and she joins us by phone now from her office in Pawley's Island, S.C. and a disclaimer. The South Carolina Environmental Law Project is a financial supporter of South Carolina Public Radio. Amy, welcome to the program.
Armstrong: Good morning, Mike. Thanks for having me on.
Switzer: So first of all, tell us more about your organization.
Armstrong: So Scout was founded during the modern day. Environmental laws first started being, drafted and implemented, and we saw some opportunities and some threats in our state for nature and our connection to nature. You mentioned stewardship in the intro, and that's exactly how Scelp thinks of the work that we do. We're here to steward South Carolina's water resources, our beaches, our beautiful outdoors. We have so much that we value in the state, our long history and traditions of hunting and fishing and dependence on nature for our own survival, for our livelihoods, for recreation. And very oftentimes those things are under threat. And when they're under threat, we are under threat. And so when there are threats to our ecosystems, then scalp steps in to provide a defense to those threats. Our work has spanned everything from mitigating waste management, preventing mega dumps from locating in our state, preventing development that would be in really high risk and dangerous areas like Captain Sam Spit, just around the state to try and remediate past harms and to improve the way decisions are made so that decisions are made with due respect for the natural world.
Switzer: Would you say that the business community in our state is amenable to environmental stewardship?
Armstrong: Really good question. There certainly is support in the business community for conservation and stewardship. There has been a tremendous amount of land preserved and protected permanently through private, public business arrangements. There's the big move for corporate responsibility and decision making. A lot of shareholders are wanting accountability for corporate stewardship. I think it's important that we do have those cooperative agreements and arrangements with the business community.
Switzer: Now, what are some of the biggest issues that you see facing our state's environment? And, and I'm just going to guess maybe sea level rise, maybe data centers.
Armstrong: Right, Right. You definitely hit on two of them. So I mean, climate change impacts extend well beyond sea level rise. So the ocean's moving closer inland and that's threatening structures. It's also causing what's known as coastal squeeze, which Means there's very limited space between the ocean and development that squeezes out the salt, marsh ecosystems. The. We're seeing increased flooding events, more severe flooding events. I mean, when we had the impacts from Helene. An example of exactly what happens when you see those kind of climate change impacts. So trying to buffer against and build resilience against those climate impacts that we're seeing. You mentioned data centers. You, know. Absolutely. There's a proliferation across our state. And what we hope will happen is that our state will take action to ensure that when we are siting those kinds of facilities, we're doing so with respect to the water resources, to the energy demands, making sure that energy costs aren't passed on to ratepayers, that they're sited in brownfields or old contaminated sites and not in pristine areas. So we're working with many governments and sometimes in opposition to some local governments. The other big threat in our state is overdevelopment. Pretty much anywhere you go in any of the major cities, you'll see a lot of sprawl and a lot of exacerbated traffic, and people see natural systems being degraded or destroyed or converted for development. We're going to grow in South Carolina and we are going to have people moving here, and we expect that and embrace it when it's done with respect to nature and, and the ecosystem upon which we're interconnected.
Switzer: Well, Amy, thank you so much for spending time with us today.
Armstrong: Yeah, thank you for having me, Mike.
Switzer: Amy Armstrong is executive director at the South Carolina Environmental Law Project. You may have heard her refer to it as scalp, and she spoke to us by phone from her office in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. And we will have a link to the organization posted at our webpage so you can learn more. SouthCarolinaPublicRadio.org and a disclaimer. The South Carolina Environmental Law Project is a financial supporter of South Carolina Public Radio with South Carolina Business Review. This is Mike Switzer.
The views expressed on the South Carolina Business Review do not necessarily reflect those of South Carolina Public Radio.
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