Expert Details Global Warming's Winners, Losers in South Carolina

August23-29, 2006, Free Times , Columbia SC
by Eric K. Ward and Wendy Pagonis

Kudzu and mosquitoes will be big winners in South Carolina as global warming continues. Beaches eroding amid rising ocean levels, agriculture suffering because of weather extremes, and poor people with less wherewithal to adapt will be the biggest losers. That's the message an expert on climate change delivered at a summit Aug. 16-17 in Columbia on South Carolina's air quality. Greenhouse gases create carbon dioxide-rich soil, in which kudzu thrives, said Mark MacLeod, special projects director for New York-based Environmental Defense.

"Kudzu loves climate change," MacLeod said of the tenacious plant already entrenched in South Carolina. The debate about global warming is no longer a debate, he said. "What's left is a referendum on the will of the American people and the ingenuity of the American economy to solve the problem." Wal-Mart, General Electric and other corporations have acknowledged global warming, and they say that a lack of a federal policy to address the issue is preventing the United States from making the kinds of technology and other investments it should, MacLeod said. As for South Carolina, he said the state's push for hydrogen research positions it to be a part of the solution. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control sponsored the summit.