Center for a Sustainable Coast Inc

Since 1997, the Center has been an outspoken and uncompromising voice protecting the Georgia Coast from destructive development projects and inadequate enforcement of environmental laws. We have done this by communicating with public officials, providing insightful information and analysis on opinion pages of local newspapers, and taking legal actions.        As you can imagine, the costs to support these activities are substantial, especially for legal services needed to defend the public interest in court.

The Existential Threat of the Climate Crisis.

In recent years, our focus has shifted toward confronting the urgent, unprecedented threats imposed by the Earth’s overheating climate, primarily caused by greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels.       The Center’s role in these activities has been critical at a time when most other “green” groups in Georgia haven’t been very engaged in the issue.

Among the many disruptive and costly consequences of humanity's failure to tackle this crisis are accelerating sea-level rise and increasingly destructive storms that will continue harming Georgia’s coast. We recognize climate disruption to be a serious and growing threat to the communities of coastal Georgia, and the causes must be reduced as quickly as possible.

Accordingly, we are working resourcefully to educate the public and to collaborate with coastal residents and organizations in building an appropriately vigorous, comprehensive local response.

A political climate favoring the status quo has made this endeavor difficult. Even so, we believe our efforts are beginning to bear fruit, particularly in Savannah where we are successfully collaborating with local activists to promote a city resolution to transition to 100% clean energy by 2030.

Legal Actions.

We are currently engaged in litigation to prevent the reckless use of public resources through flawed permitting of problematic beach restoration and groin construction on Sea Island. This project, which includes violations of the permits issued for it, will enable hazardous shorefront development on an unstable and precariously located sand spit, which has been repeatedly ravaged by coastal storms.

The Center is also taking legal action to uphold the intent of Congress in 1972 when landmark legislation was passed, dedicated to the preservation of uniquely wild and beautiful natural resources of Cumberland Island National Seashore

The Center is a small organization with a significant impact. But without your help we can't continue advocating and educating at the level needed to achieve a sustainable future for coastal Georgia .