Businesses supporting SCBARS

Yesterday I told you about the South Carolina Small Business Chamber’s SCBARS (South Carolina Businesses Acting on Rising Seas) project. Our press conference at the Battery in Charleston was covered by the Charleston Post & Courier and the Charleston City Paper.  Read the stories here and here.

But I didn’t tell you about the wonderful statements of support for our efforts to educate tourists about the threat of sea level rise and turn them into advocates for protecting our South Carolina coast and our small business tourism industry.

Here is what Dottie Karst, president of Charles Foster Staffing and Executive Search and board member of the Small Business Chamber, said at the press event yesterday.

While my company provides staffing services for businesses across the Southeast, we focus primarily on this beautiful area of South Carolina.  So besides being my home, this is the coastal economy that drives my business.  Well the future economy of this city is seriously threatened by the rising sea level that we know is coming.  We have a responsibility to address the cause of this threat for all the small businesses for generations to come.  That is why we must take on climate change and ask Washington to take actions to reduce carbon pollution.  We simply can’t let this beautiful city fall victim to the sea.  Oh, we could put up sea walls all around the peninsula and be that city in the 1860s under siege from an enemy.  But it is better that we act now to prevent that scenario on the horizon.  That’s why I’m proud to be a part of South Carolina Businesses Acting on Climate Change.

Finally, another Small Business Chamber board member, Roger Martinez of Stasmayer Inc., said the following yesterday.

We are one of those businesses that would be directly impacted by a 6-foot rise in sea level.  We believe the science.  The rising sea is coming.  And while I probably won’t live to the end of this century, my children will and certainly my grandchildren.  A James Island, Folly Beach, much of Charleston under water is not the future I want for my family.  And it’s not the future anyone who lives, works or owns a business along South Carolina’s coast wants.  So let’s do something about it.  I am encouraging every business owner in the Charleston area to join us in our efforts to educate not only ourselves but every tourist who visits our great coast.  We all should be advocates for protecting our coast and our small business tourism economy.  Washington will listen to us if we can get every one of us standing here today, every small business up and down our coast, and every visitor who enjoys our natural resources to demand action to cut carbon pollution and transition this country to a clean energy economy.  SC BARS will move us to that action and I’m proud to be a part of the effort.

Now the hard part--working to turn these wonderful words of support into the promised outcome.  Help us in our effort.  If you are a small business owner along our coast and would like to help by posting a sign, contact me.   And everybody should go to www.SCBARS.org and send a letter to your Congressperson and the President.  Join our army of advocates for our coastal small business tourism economy.