Pentagon officials hope conserving salt marshes can protect SC military bases

This past April, Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made it clear: The effects of climate change are a national security risk.

“Today, no nation can find lasting security without addressing the climate crisis,” Austin said. “We face all kinds of threats in our line of work, but few of them truly deserve to be called existential. The climate crisis does,” and added that “climate change is making the world more unsafe and we need to act.”

South Carolina boasts a massive military presence, with bases for each branch of the armed service as well as thousands of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen calling the surrounding communities home. But it also has one of the most environmentally vulnerable coastlines in the country, putting some of the Pentagon’s most important assets at risk of being destroyed by erosion, floods and hurricanes.