More black voices sought in climate change debate

FLORENCE— When former president Al Gore talked about climate change, a lot of people in the South Santee community didn't pay much mind, Sam Campbell says.

"You see it, but it went over your head," said Campbell, a resident in the rural, largely elderly community near McClellanville. "When it's hard living on a $500 per month fixed income, hard to pay the light bill, pay for (natural) gas, go to town and buy gasoline, that's when it hits home."

That's the notion behind the Commission to Engage African-Americans on Climate Change, an effort led by environmental groups to bring carbon fuels and the debate into the voting forefront of people in black communities. They tend to produce less carbon emissions than other groups but pay a steeper price in economic, health and environmental impacts, studies suggest.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.