Parris Island wages battles, not war, against climate change

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is particularly vulnerable to flooding, coastal erosion and other impacts of climate change, a Defense Department-funded “resiliency review” noted last month.

Others advocate much larger and more expensive solutions, such as building huge seawalls around the base, or moving Marine Corps training away from the coast altogether.

It remains a crucial training ground, along with Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego.

A Pentagon document published last fall, after President Joe Biden ordered federal agencies to revamp their climate resilience plans, says the Department of Defense now has “a comprehensive approach to building climate-ready installations” and cites an adaptation and resilience study undertaken by Parris Island.

Already, more than 500 people on Parris Island suffered from heat stroke and heat exhaustion between 2016 and 2020, putting the base among the top ten U.S.

All the training that happens at Parris Island could be technically replicated on cooler, drier land somewhere else, said retired Brig.

Parris Island has so far been spared the direct hits that have caused billions in damage to other military installations, but it has been evacuated twice in the last five years for hurricanes, which hit South Carolina every eight years, on average.

Stephanie Rossi, a planner with the Lowcountry Council of Governments, said the group’s Defense Department-funded study of climate change impacts suggests shoring up the only road on and off the island, elevating buildings and bolstering the storm water system of an area where military families live.