The stench of climate change denial

This may sound a bit weird, but when I think about my adolescent years, I sometimes associate them with the faint smell of sewage.

You see, when I was in high school, my family lived on the South Shore of Long Island, where few homes had sewer connections. Most had septic tanks, and there always seemed to be an overflowing tank somewhere upwind.

Most of Nassau County eventually got sewered. But many American homes, especially in the Southeast, aren't connected to sewer lines, and more and more septic tanks are overflowing, on a scale vastly greater than what I remember from my vaguely smelly hometown - which is both disgusting and a threat to public health.

The cause? Climate change. Along the Gulf and south Atlantic coasts, The Washington Post reported last week, "sea levels have risen at least 6 inches since 2010." This may not sound like much, but it leads...