What you need to know about Cainhoy Peninsula

By Mary Edna | Published: March 30, 2026

Cainhoy (SC) 36″ x 36″ batik on silk, Mary Edna Fraser 2014

A proposed development on the Cainhoy Peninsula could make low-country flooding problems even worse. The Southern Environmental Law Center tells us how this risky development could drastically affect our already destructive flooding issues in this article:

What you need to know about Cainhoy Peninsula
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As a South Carolina county prepares to approve a new data center, Low Country residents prepare for a fight.

By Mary Edna | Published: December 17, 2025

WALTERBORO, SC

Here is a link that shows you how to have your voice heard:

https://www.facebook.com/100063685446739/posts/1488989713233863/?mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=klNdGVhvjRL2gNZT#

Developers are looking to build an 859-acre data center campus near Walterboro, about 45 minutes north of downtown Beaufort, according to a public notice from Colleton County®

The proposed site would be the closest data center to Beaufort County to date. The extensive facilities, filled with rows of computer servers, data storage devices, and networking equipment, are known for consuming large amounts of energy, leading to higher power bills in surrounding areas more than an hour away.

At the same time, data centers form the backbone of digital services. Every time you send an email, stream a show, save a photo to the cloud, or ask a question to a chatbot, you’re relying on a data center.

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ENERGY FROM HEAVEN NOT HELL

By Mary Edna | Published: November 17, 2025

Environmentalist Bill McKibben offers HOPE

Joel Caldwell, Bill McKibben, Dr. Blake Scott, Blake Suarez, and Belvin Olasov

Charleston Literary Festival and Southern Environmental Law Center brought the famed author and environmentalist Bill McKibben to introduce his newest book, Here Comes The Sun, a hopeful last chance for the climate and fresh change for civilization. Charleston Climate Coalition and The M.A.R.S.H Project had a small gathering the morning of November 10th at which McKibben applauded local grassroots efforts and encouraged folks to act locally. His 4:00 presentation at the Dock Street Theatre echoed these sentiments but was his opportunity to paint a broader picture of what we’ve called “alternate energy” sources are now, in the rest of the world, not alternate but mainstream, and the most economical, effective and equitable sources to fuel the future. 

Big Oil funded Trump to the tune of half a billion dollars, which has effectively  has halted clean energy initiatives in much of the USA. McKibben encouraged us to act locally and fight the Methane Gas Plant at Canadys on the banks of the Edisto River. As one of the largest gas plants in the country, it will obsolete when built. “The rest of the world is not building big gas plants,” he noted, they’re investing in solar. Grassroots action is needed to protect the ACE Basin from water withdrawal needed for the “energy from hell,” as McKibben called fossil-derived combustion-fueled energy. Hazardous particulate matter released would cause hospitalizations of the local community with heart attacks, pneumonia, cardiovascular issues, stroke, cancer and birth defects.

90% of the world’s energy now comes from sun, wind and batteries clean resources. As a hurricane and flood prone area, we should turn to “energy from heaven,” as he called solar and wind. The Vatican will soon be off the fossil fuel grid supplying its own clean power, making it the first fully solar nation on the planet.  Climate solutions are making tremendous gains. 350.org and Third Act are McKibben’s educational links for you to be a climate activist fighting political battles for the betterment of humanity.

The wise 63 year old leader peppered his talk with facts and figures that made my head spin. 

A standing ovation celebrated McKibben’s presentation.

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