I am writing to express opposition to the development planned for Bay Point Island. Here is why:
As a nationally designated Important Bird Area, this island supports up to 8,000 shorebirds during the winter. A recent study showed North America has lost almost 3 billion (with a B) birds in the past 50 years. Projects like this hastened the decline of birds threatened by climate change and over-development.
This is a barrier island that protects the mainland from the brunt of storm impacts. Sea levels worldwide have already risen 8 inches due to climate change, with the East Coast being among the highest. We are experiencing stronger storms.
Will FEMA insure this type of resort? If not, can the developer self-insure against storm damage? For how many storms? Will the developer then abandon the resort with Beaufort County responsible for clean up?
There is a new addition to the plan – septic areas! Are you kidding me? Most communities bordering bodies of water are required to connect to centralized sewer infrastructure for good reason!
There is already evidence of saltwater intrusion into groundwater. Rising seas and more severe storms will increase the risk of systems failure, causing pollution of waterways relied on by the Gullah-Geechee community.
Required infrastructure – emergency response, power and water – are all high risk.
This development is risky to our environment and to the residents of Beaufort County, who will be responsible for financial support of negative impacts.
Calling it “eco” does not make it so. Leave it be!
Paula Smith
Sun City Hilton Head
To the Editor:
I recently wrote about the transient nature of life on earth. I struggled to include the name of a book that would shed more light on this topic. But with word limitations on letters, I left it out.
The book title is “In the Light of Truth; The Grail Message” (grailmessage.com). I discovered it at age 19 and continued to delve into it for decades later. It is the most important source for me in discovering the will of God expressed in His laws of creation.
As a child, I was taught the Lord’s Prayer, but never took a deeper look into the meaning of the words. I simply rattled it off during religious services with everyone else – in 30 seconds or less! Now I question my sincerity and truthfulness to the Creator if I even dare to say these words today: “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!” No more than a lie when one has no knowledge of God’s will.
Yes, besides the Grail Message there are other ways to find God’s will. There are the Commandments, the Bible, the properly interpreted words of Jesus, inspired religious leaders, and other sources. I can also include one’s own observations of life that reveal His will in the most perfect natural laws. All have proved valuable to me.
But with absolute certainty I can say that the Creator’s will has blossomed forth for me in the Grail Message!
Gene Ceccarelli
Bluffton
To the Editor:
COVID-19 affects everyone regardless of who they are.
Ignorance also affects everyone. We can build a defense against a virus as a community, as a state and as a nation. Why can’t we do more to eradicate ignorance?
Since coming to South Carolina to live, I decided to learn more about the hate that exists because of ignorance. Thankfully, through my African-American friends, I am learning much about our history that wasn’t taught or that I didn’t choose to study.
If you were impacted by what happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis, I encourage you to seek out and become friends with our fellow Americans – African-Americans. Rage and anger are not going to fix what is wrong with our society when it comes to understanding the anger of people of color.
If you live in Sun City, I encourage you to join Book Club Chapter V. If you would rather learn more on your own, try searching the internet with your questions. There are a ton of sites addressing every question you may have. Let me get you started with a few: blackpast.org/research-guides-websites or eji.org.
Jim Quirk
Sun City Hilton Head
To the Editor:
Kevin Loughrey’s well-written but fundamentally flawed editorial, “Fossils fuels made life better; we should be grateful,” in your June 2 edition suggests judging fossil fuels “…by what is good for humans.”
Fossil fuels haven’t been good for humans. They dirtied our air and water, despoiled our land and caused adverse health outcomes. We’re becoming aware how dramatically that pollution imperils our planet and all humans on it.
Environmental science, in fact all science, has consensus that fossil fuels caused these problems and threaten our existence. Coal warmed homes and produced electricity, but its aftermath continues to contribute to global warming, rising ocean levels (a particular concern we in the Lowcountry should fear), droughts, fires, worse weather and loss of species in our ecosystem.
Loughrey accuses environmentalists of “defaming fossil fuels.” How can you defame the thing that threatens your existence and the planet’s future? Fossil fuels never paid for their externalities like pollution. Fossil fuel magnates reaped untold wealth, but the public was always left to pay the cost in health, pollution and its ravages.
The choice isn’t modernity or fossil fuels. Last year the U.S. produced more energy from renewables than coal; it gets better every year. In some places in Europe renewables account for 50% of their electricity or more.
The editorial ends by celebrating fossil fuel producers who made the world better, and “…They did so to benefit people, not the planet.” That’s wrong. We don’t “benefit people” by harming the planet. As they say, there is no planet B.
Jeff Foreman
Bluffton
