As Americans endure extreme heat and wildfires exacerbated by fossil fuel-driven climate change, an analysis revealed Tuesday that rising seas threaten infrastructure critical for millions of people in hundreds of U.S. communities.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) report notes that “the nearly 90 million people living in U.S. coastal communities depend on an array of critical infrastructure,” which the group defined as “assets and facilities that provide functions necessary to sustain daily life,” including “schools, hospitals, public and affordable housing, energy infrastructure, and wastewater treatment plants.”
“We also include known sites of industrial contamination that, if they were to flood, could expose people to toxic or hazardous pollutants,” UCS explained. “The resulting list of critical infrastructure analyzed here is in some instances more expansive than the types included in the U.S. government’s definition but does not include all the types that are likely of concern to individual communities.”