S.C. warms up to real threat

Greenhouse-gas emissions in South Carolina were 39 percent higher in 2005 than in 1990, an increase almost double the national average. The state should begin reversing that trend, recognizing the importance of mitigating sea level rise for a coastal state.

A committee appointed by Gov. Mark Sanford recommended last week that the state embark on an effort to cut emissions below the 1990 level over the next 12 years. The governor praised the panel's report as "an excellent place to begin the conversation and debate" on the issue.

Gov. Sanford's qualified support of the findings recognizes the possibly devastating implications if a broad scientific consensus on global warming and resulting sea-level elevations of significant magnitude in this century prove correct.

Such rises would threaten more than low- lying areas along the coast, but also water supplies and agricultural yields far beyond it.

Nearly a year and a half ago, the governor appointed a "Climate, Energy and Commerce Advisory Committee," including representatives of both business and environmental interests, to review those possibly harmful impacts — and to suggest feasible "market-based policies" to counter them.

The panel recommended increasing the share of electricity generated by nuclear power (which emits virtually no greenhouse gas) while using advanced reprocessing technology; expanding mass transit, bike and pedestrian options; developing alternative fuels; reclaiming more methane for energy; and conserving forests.

Many South Carolinians still reject the notion that climate change is a real threat. They should review the growing and well-documented evidence of it, including the second straight year of near-record-low levels of ice in the Arctic Ocean.

They also should review the S.C. panel's finding that while our state's greenhouse-gas emissions grew by nearly two-fifths from 1990 to 2005, the nation's grew by about half as much. Clearly, South Carolina should be able to meet its energy needs without emitting so much carbon.

Saving energy and developing cleaner forms of it aren't just worthy environmental goals. They're practical financial goals in an era when such breakthroughs will generate considerable economic gain.

In a coastal state that would bear the front-line brunt of a rise in sea levels, reducing greenhouse-gas emissions is a practical form of long-term self-defense.