How Does Climate Change Create Vulnerability?

Climate change is creating vulnerability. Sewage treatment plants are susceptible to major failures and overflows because of rising seas, more intense coastal storms, and increased heavy precipitation events. In 2012, Climate Central’s comprehensive analysis of sea level rise, stated more than two-thirds of costal locations in the U.S. will be affected by global warming that has more than doubled the chances of a hundred year storm surge occurring within the next year. (Hurricane Sandy) The higher the seas rise, the more storms that will overwhelm costal sewage treatment systems, resulting in colossal overflows of partially or untreated sewage into surrounding lakes and rivers. These surrounding infiltrated lakes and rivers are crucial for