Publication: CNN

UCLA Expert: Lara Cushing: Assistant Professor, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability; Jonathan and Karin Fielding Presidential Chair in Health Equity, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

Synopsis: Hundreds of hazardous industrial sites that dot the California coastline — including oil and gas refineries and sewage-treatment plants — are at risk of severe flooding from rising sea level if the climate crisis worsens, new research shows. 

UCLA News: If planet-warming pollution continues to rise unabated, 129 industrial sites are estimated to be at risk of coastal flooding by 2050 according to the study, led by Cushing. Her research also found that residents living within a kilometer — about 0.6 miles — of these contaminated sites tend to be more vulnerable: people of color, the  elderly, unemployed and low-income communities. By the end of the century, the number of at-risk toxic sites could increase to 423, and the disadvantaged population around those sites is expected to grow as well.

It’s the first study that takes a comprehensive look at a broad suite of hazardous sites impacted from rapidly rising seas, Cushing said.

Read more at CNN.